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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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http://www.archive.org/details/schooldaysinfift01giff 



SCHOOL DAYS IN THE FIFTIES 



School Days in the Fifties 



A TRUE STORY WITH SOME UNTRUE NAMES 
OF PERSONS AND PLACES 



BY 

WILLIAM M. GIFFIN, A.M., Pd. D. 



WITH AN APPENDIX 

Containing an Autobiographical Sketch o) 
FRANCIS WAY LAND PARKER 



CHICAGO 
A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 



ttBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

APR 28 1906 

. Copyrignt Entry 

CL4SS <X 'XXC, No, 

OOPY B. 



Copyright 1906 

BY 

Wm. M. Giffin. 



Go 
MY WIFE 

AND 

CHILDREN 

(CLEON MILFORD AND EMMA LOU) 
THIS LITTLE BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER 1 7 

The Old Stone School House ; Voice Culture ; The Two 
Rooms; Mothers, Mothers; Visit the School. 

CHAPTER II . . ii 

Arithmetic; Ethics; Patience; Good Mixers; Brotherly- 
Love; Superintendents; Arithmetic Creed. 

CHAPTER III 17 

A Teacher vs. Hearer of Lessons ; Bill Fools the 
Teacher ; The Teacher Fools Bill ; Who Was to Blame ? 

CHAPTER IV 21 

English Grammar; The Flag; Language Work; Dick 
Gets Us to Laugh With Him ; Dick Gets Us to Laugh at 
Him. 

CHAPTER V 27 

Miss Composite ; Prepared Lessons ; Natural Voice ; 
Please ; Heard Both Sides ; Not Changeable ; Marks ; 
Never Called Names ; " Cute Baby." 

CHAPTER VI 35 

Daddy W. ; Prison ; Saved ; Let the Children Help. 

CHAPTER VII 39 

Examinations in 1861 ; Examinations in 1888. 

CHAPTER VIII 43 

" Geogafy " ; Point North ; Three Images ; Busybodies ; 
Teachers, Don't, Please Don't. 



\ 1 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER IX 49 

Mr. H. and His Whip ; Rules ; Order ; Assigning Les- 
sons; Professional Teachers; The Per cent No Test. 

CHAPTER X 59 

Mr. H. and His Hobbies; Spelling Down; The Dull ' 
Boy; The Daffy Girl; Sayings of Great Men. 

CHAPTER XI 6s 

Mary M. and Her Influence; Did Not Repeat Answers; 
Two Language Lessons. 

CHAPTER XII 73 

Professional Reading ; Bible ; Page ; Leonard and Ger- 
trude ; White ; Payne ; Parker ; Hailman ; Quick ; Commit- 
tee of Ten ; Currie ; Sulley ; Murray. 

CHAPTER XIII 79 

Examinations; What is Geography? Big Live Nanny- 
Goat; Bite Wouldn't It? 

CHAPTER XIV 85 

Light ; No " Plebes " ; The Condition ; Born Short Op- 
portunity. 

CLIAPTER XV 89 

The Will; More Than Book Knowledge; Johnny's Pie; 
Her Competency. 

CHAPTER XVI 93 

A Chapter From Real Life; A Hero; Not a Hero; 
Fred. 

CHAPTER XVII 97 

Sylvanus Reported By Prof. Richards. 
CHAPTER XVIII. . . . . 103 

The Teachers' Alphabet. 
APPENDIX 109 

Frances Wayland Parker, Autobiographical Sketch of. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE OLD STONE SCHOOL HOUSE. 

When a boy I attended school in the old stone 
school-house in northern New York, near the banks 
of the beautiful St. Lawrence. Those were days 
never to be forgotten. How I live them over and 
over calling up event after event till I almost feel 
that I am a boy again! I can see the old wooden 
benches each with the names of many pupils carved 
on it; the old painted blackboard hanging on the 
wall and behind it the long, crooked beech switch 
with which the master often tickled our flesh, thus 
developing our organs of speech in a wonderful man- 
ner. I venture to say that the most celebrated prima 
donna with all her modern training never reached 
higher notes than we attained by this antique method. 

How we did learn in those days ! Why, it was no 
more trouble for a ten-year-old to rattle off such 
numbers as 889,654,328,896 than it is to-day for 
a boy of half that age to tell the cost of a peck of 
potatoes at fifty cents a bushel ; but a boy of ten was 
never asked such questions as the latter, for that was 
an example in COMPOUND DENOMINATE 
NUMBERS ! " Them questions were way over in 
the middle of the 'rithmetic and were for the big fel- 
lers in the big room." 

7 



8 SCHOOL DAYS. 

Yes, there were two rooms, the big room for the 
big fellows and the little room for the " trundle bed 
trash " as they were called by the boys in the big 
room. It was in the big room where the big fellows 
read in the big books, did their sums, and learned 
more definitions without knowing the meaning of 
one half of the words, than it is possible to do now- 
a-days. I recall one now, " English grammar is the 
art of speaking, reading, and writing the English 
language correctly. It is divided into four parts, 
namely, (That namely always sounded so refined to 
me) Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Pros- 
ody." A wag once thinking a lad did not know what 
he was talking about asked when he had recited it 
for him, "What kind of an animal is a prosody?" 
"I am not quite sure," was the answer, " but I think 
it is something like a frog ! " 

I remember the day when it was announced that 
I had outgrown the little room and was to be pro- 
moted to the big room. I had gotten into some 
trouble with the woman teacher, as had others of my 
mates, and we were having a sort of go as you please 
time, when, before we knew it, the door between the 
rooms opened and the man who taught the big room 
had me by the nape of the neck, and without any for- 
mal examination landed me in one of the seats of the 
big room, where I remained the rest of the term by 
right of possession. Needless to say I did not report 
my promotion at home. Had I done so with the 
cause thereof I, no doubt, would have asked to be 
excused from sitting down in the afternoon. Moth- 



IN THE FIFTIES. 9 

ers were so different in those days. We loved them 
just the same and they made good men of the most 
of us too. 

Mothers, mothers, don't fight every little battle of 
your children. Don't go to the school and make an 
exhibition of yourself by abusing the teacher. , Don't 
you know that nine hundred and ninety teachers of 
every thousand are the best kind of friends to the 
children? Can't you understand that a teacher never 
" gets down " on a child who is half trying to do his 
duty? Will you never learn that your conduct to- 
ward the teacher will do more to get her down on the 
child than anything the child can do ? I once heard 
a teacher say he could get along with the children all 
right if the foolish mothers would stay at home. I 
have sometimes thought the marriage laws should be 
amended by stating that no marriage license should 
be granted to a young woman who had not taken 
either a kindergarten or normal school course. 

On the other hand, while I would not have fathers 
and mothers (fathers seldom do) fight the petty 
battles for their children, parents should never allow 
their children to be tantalized, pestered, and abused 
by a set of ignoramuses, old or young, who can see 
no difference between the human mind and the instinct 
of a dog, and who think it as good a joke to pester 
and tease a quick tempered child till they get him in 
a frenzy as to tease a dog. I would favor a law giv- 
ing a public horsewhipping to any person eighteen 
years old or over, guilty of hectoring or pestering a 
child just for the fun of seeing him in a temper. 



10 SCHOOL DAYS. 

A wise mother visits the school often; watches the 
progress of her child ; gets acquainted with the princi- 
pal and the class teacher and she is always welcome. 
A good teacher encourages inquiry into his motives 
and methods and a good mother never judges a teacher 
before having heard his side of the story. Too often 
the cry of fads is made by those who have never been 
inside of the school building on a regular school day. 
" Many a parent," says Page, " upon the first an- 
nouncement of a measure in school, has stoutly opposed 
it, who upon a little explanatory conversation with 
the teacher, or principal, entertain a very different opin- 
ion and ever after are the most ready to countenance 
and support it." 



CHAPTER II. 

ARITHMETIC. 

Arithmetic, yes, we studied arithmetic in the Fif- 
ties. There is stuff enough taught now in its name, 
goodness knows; but, teachers, what do you think of 
the following being added to your work? It was 
found in all the arithmetics of those days and the 
teacher was expected to inflict every bit of it during 
the year. Viz. : Simple Interest by Decimals, Barter, 
Policies of Insurance, Compound Interest, Discount 
by Compound Interest, Annuities, Pensions, &c, Alli- 
gation Medial, Alligation Alternate, Position, Per- 
mutations and Combinations, Progressions, Arithmet- 
ical Progressions, Geometrical Progressions, Annuities 
and Equation of Payments. By going back a little 
farther, but to keep in the Nineteenth Century we may 
add the following taken from the table of contents of 
an arithmetic published in New York in 1816, which, 
by the way, was a revised edition ! " Practice, Tare 
and Tret." ("Tare," says the author, 'is an allow- 
ance made to the buyer, for the weight of a box, bag, 
or barrel, etc. While Tret is an allowance of 41b. in 
every 104 lb. for waste, dust, etc. Then comes Cloff, 
being an allowance of 2lb. upon every 3cwt.) Table 
of Powers and the Biquadratic Root ! " The poor 



12 SCHOOL DAYS. 

teachers who went through all this are dead and gone, 
but I heave a sigh for them nevertheless. 

The pedagogy of to-day says that a teacher should 
have a motive back of her work. I have often won- 
dered what the motive of the author could have been 
when he wrote the problems given below. They are 
taken from the book mentioned above. Perhaps to 
teach a lesson in ethics. Judge for yourself. 

" A and B having found a purse of money, dis- 
puted who should have it: A said that 1-5, 1-10, 
and 1-20 of it amounted to £35, and if B could tell 
him how much was in it he should have the whole, 
otherwise he should have nothing: How much did 
the purse contain? " This was taken from under the 
head, Position. Now comes one from Alligation. 

" Suppose I have four sorts of currants, at 3d. I2d. 
i8d. and 22d. per lb. The worst will not sell, and 
the best are too dear ; I therefore conclude to mix 
i2olb. and so much of each sort as to sell them at 
i6d. per lb.: How much of each must I take?" Is 
it any wonder that we have our pure food conven- 
tions when our forefathers had such suggestions 
given them ? 

The motive for the following was no doubt to teach 
patience, as a pupil must have learned patience to 
have found the answer: 

" Suppose one farthing had been put out at 6 per 
cent per annum, compound interest, at the commence- 
ment of the Christian era : what would it have amount- 
ed to in 1734 years; and suppose the amount to be 
in standard gold, allowing a cubic inch to be worth 



IN THE FIFTIES. 13 

£53 2s. 8d,, how large would the mass have been?" 
And here is the answer : 

"27,980,859,722,121,260,415,979,512,332,933,594,- 
210,766 cubic inches of gold." 

About ten years later came a revised book. This 
also contains its rules for Permutations of Quanti- 
ties, Rule of Three Direct, do. Inverse, Double Rule 
of Three and a rule showing how to reduce the cur- 
rencies of the different States to Federal Money. 

They were still good mixers as the following will 
show : " How much water at o per gallon, must be 
mixed with wine at 90 cents per gallon, so as to fill 
a vessel of 100 gallons, which may be offered at 60 
cents per gallon? " 

One more, the motive no doubt being to teach 
brotherly love : " Three jealous husbands with their 
wives, being ready to pass by night over a river, do 
find at the water side a boat which can carry but two 
persons at once, and for want of a waterman they are 
necessitated to row themselves over the river at sev- 
eral times : The question is, how those six persons 
shall pass two and two, so that none of the three 
wives may be found in the company of one or two 
men, unless her husband be present?" 

Others might be added to these every one of which 
has been taken from text books used within the mem- 
ory of the father and brothers of the writer. 

The text used in the Fifties was but little better, in 
fact the Nineties had not much to its credit. How 
is this, taken from an examination for teachers held 
not many moons ago ? " How many gallons in a 



14 SCHOOL DAYS. 

cask 32 inches long with a mean diameter of 13 
inches? " Do you know what a teacher has to recall 
in order to solve this problem? Let me give it to 
yon. Take the square of the mean diameter in inches 
and multiply by the length of the cask in inches and 
that product by .0034 to find the capacity in gallons. 
When the cask is not full, multiply the square of 
one third of the sum of the head and mean and bung 
diameter in inches by the depth of the liquid in inches 
and this product by .0034 to find the amount of liquid 
in gallons. 

If a teacher, to prove that she can teach, must be 
able to recall such a rule and to work such a problem, 
how much time do you expect her to give to the study 
of her profession or the little tots put under her 
charge ? 

Here is another taken from the same test : 

1 Of 2-| .06 + 3I 

Add to — 

■5 T f 35 2 3 

My dear Superintendents, you must stop this sort 
of examinations if you expect to improve your coun- 
try schools. You must get at the fundamental prin- 
ciples of arithmetic rather than at its tricks ; you must 
treat it pedagogically in your examinations rather 
than academically. The question for a teachers' test 
should not be " Divide % by £4," but should be, 
" How will you teach a child to divide J/$ by 24 ? " 
The answer to the first will show a previous knowl- 
edge of a rule conned at some time ; the answer to 
the second will not only necessitate the remembering 



IN THE FIFTIES. '15 

of the rule, but will also test the teacher's competency 
as an instructor. 

Marked improvements have been made, however, 
in the teaching of this subject as will be seen in the 
following " Arithmetic Creed " agreed upon by the 
Cook County Teachers' Association during the super- 
intendency of O. T. Bright : 

Article I. — All operations which should be taught 
to children in Number can be performed with num- 
bers of things. 

Article II. — The subjects to be taught in Arith- 
metic, the terms to be used, and the processes to be 
employed, shall be determined from the standpoint of 
the child — not from that of the educated adult. 

Article III. — In determining what shall be taught 
in Arithmetic, we should be able to show that any 
topic is: (a) practical; that is, that it has to do with 
the affairs of life; or, (b) disciplinary; that is, that 
it insures mental growth and mental strength. 

Article IV. — We condemn the giving of work 
in Arithmetic under the name of " Examples," for 
which conditions stated in problems cannot be made. 
For instance, complicated examples in complex or 
compound fractions. 

Article V. — Definition and rule should be re- 
quired only when the thing to be defined or the proc- 
ess under the rule is thoroughly understood. Hence, 
definitions and rules should close — not begin — a 
subject. They should be made by the student. 

Article VI. — Lessons in Arithmetic should not 
be assigned for home study. 



l6 SCHOOL DAYS. 

Article VII. — Operations in Arithmetic which 
have become obsolete, or have never existed else- 
where in the world, should become obsolete in the 
schoolroom. 

Article VIII. — Problems in Arithmetic should 
employ the best effort of the pupil, but should never 
go beyond it. He grows through what he does for 
himself. The skillful teacher secures and directs his 
best efforts. 

Article IX. — All that need be taught to children 
in Arithmetic can be taught under the following sub- 
jects : Lines, Area, Volume, Bulk, Time, Weight, 
Values, and Single Things. 

Article X. — Fundamental operations — four or 
five, according to your faith. Numbers used to be 
within the comprehension of pupils. First, correct- 
ness, then, rapidity in work. Use of federal money 
included in the foregoing. 



CHAPTER III. 

A TEACHER VS. A HEARER OF LESSONS. 

James A. Garfield once said, " The student 
should first study what he needs most to know; the 
order of his needs should be the order of his work." 
Surely those teachers who taught us little folks to 
read, write or count numbers from one to one billion, 
could never have supposed that the order of our work 
was the order of our needs. Had they stopped a mo- 
ment to think that if a man were to begin to count a 
billion and were to count one hundred a minute, eight 
hours a day, he would not complete his task in over 
sixty years they might have done better by us. The 
very children who learned to read and write these 
numbers could not possibly have told how many 
pounds of bran to give a man for $2.75 at 75 cents a 
hundred. Yet I do not know that the teachers were 
any more to blame than the authors of the text books, 
perhaps not so much. I am quite sure that all the 
arithmetics we ever used when I was a boy, had 
the teaching of such numbers in the first pages of the 
book. The teachers were simply following the sug- 
gestions of those whom they considered their supe- 
riors. In those days the teachers were not expected 
to ask any questions or offer any suggestions. Had 
17 



18 SCHOOL DAYS. 

they had more to say the progress would have been 
more rapid. The reason that the Creed given in the 
last chapter is so full of good sense is because the 
teachers of the county were given an opportunity to 
help make it. 

Some of the teachers, even in the Fifties were in 
advance of their age. It must have been hard work 
for the most of them, who taught in the old stone 
school house. It has been truly said, " There can 
hardly be conceived a life of more drudgery than that 
of a teacher who goes through a dull, monotonous 
routine every day, attempting to instruct, and not 
knowing how. But if the teacher will study the 
mind he is shaping, his calling must prove to him the 
most interesting and fascinating possible." 

Too many children never accomplish anything be- 
cause they fear both their parents and teachers. Too 
many never succeed because they are made to feel 
that they never can. Many a child who is full of ani- 
mation and life and fun and happiness, is made to 
hate his school and school books, because his teacher 
does not take the time and trouble to study his dis- 
position and thus learn how to govern him. 

I am here reminded of an old schoolmate at the old 
stone school house. Bill would do the most cheeky 
things, and then put on that innocent look of his so 
quickly and perfectly that had a mirror been placed 
before him he would have himself been in doubt, for 
a moment, whether he was in earnest or not. Often 
when the teacher was " hearing " a class " say " a 
lesson, Bill would snap his fingers and say very 



IN THE FIFTIES. 19 

quickly, " Miss Jenks, you lie I think." Miss J. 
would place her finger on the line where she had left 
off, look up, and ask, " Who is talking? " Then Bill 
would put on that innocent look and say, " May / get 
a drink?" to which Miss J. would reply, "Yes, yes, 
get a drink." 

One day we were in the school yard, and Bill, who 
had a snowball in his hand, said, " You dassent dare 
me to throw this snowball through the window." " I 
dassent, eh? " said I, " I'll double dare you to do it." 
The words were hardly out of my mouth when, 
smash! dash! went the ball through the window. 
Bill at once ran to the door and said, " Miss J., I had 
a snowball in my hand and threw it and it went right 
through the glass." The teacher only said, " Well, 
Willie, I'm glad you told me yourself; you are a good 
boy for telling me." 

Bill tried it again the next term on a new teacher, 
who said when he went to report, " Well, well, that 
is too bad, but since you were so good as to report it 
yourself I tell you what I will do — you buy the glass 
and I will put it in." Ah! here was a teacher, not a 
hearer of lessons. What work we did that term. 
How we all respected him every one of us. And by 
the way, I think he was the first Normal school grad- 
uate that ever taught in the old stone school house. 
No fooling him, he made a study of every one and he 
knew us too. We were not long in learning that he 
knew and we soon got down to work. 

He remembered how he felt as a child. He knew 
that he who has forgotten how he felt as a child lacks 



20 SCHOOL DAYS. 

an essential for a good disciplinarian. He knew that 
every teacher who succeeds in awakening a desire for 
better things in a young scapegrace, deserves more 
praise than a thousand " hearers of lessons." He 
was full of faith, love, courage, patience, sympathy, 
self-control, enthusiasm, and common sense, all of 
which are avenues that lead to children's hearts. 

We boys of the old stone school house were like 
the average boys, full of fun and vim, always looking 
on the bright side of life, and seeing a joke the mo- 
ment it presented itself. We were by no means 
vicious, nor did we intend to do any real wrong. We 
took no interest in our arithmetic, because, as taught, 
it was beyond our comprehension. We had no liking 
for our grammar, because we never saw any practical 
use of it. We did not get our spelling lesson, be- 
cause it was utterly impossible for us to do so intel- 
ligently. All this, as a matter of course, led us into 
mischief and we did just what our teachers let us do. 
Let^ me repeat that, just what our teachers let us do 
— nothing more, nothing less. 

Who was to blame? The teachers who let us? 
Or the trustees who hired such teachers? Or the 
people who elected such trustees? 



CHAPTER IV. 
ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 

Let me again quote James A. Garfield who was 
talking not of the schools of to-day but of those of 
which I am writing : " One half of the time which 
is now almost wholly wasted in district schools on 
English grammar attempted at too early an age, 
would be sufficient to teach our children to love the 
Republic and to become its loyal and life long sup- 
porters." I seldom, if ever, read this quotation without 
recalling the correcting of false syntax, the conjugation 
of the verb " to love," the declension of the pronouns 
and nouns, and the diagramming of the extracts 
from Thanatopsis with which I was burdened when a 
boy. Oh ! the time that has been wasted discussing 
whether President should be in the nominative or 
objective case in the following sentence : " He was 
elected President." Is it any wonder that Garfield 
said (remember he was talking of the schools of long 
ago), "To me it is a perpetual wonder that any 
child's love of knowledge survives the outrages of the 
school room " ? 

We were all good at the declension of pronouns. 
Of course we had no idea that nominative I meant that 
we were to use I as a subject of a sentence; that had 

21 



22 SCHOOL DAYS. 

nothing 1 to do with it. All we wanted was nomina- 
tive I, possessive my or mine and objective me, 
though in less than five minutes we would be saying, 
"Can John and me get a pail of water?" This 
would go by uncorrected. As was said at the begin- 
ning of the chapter we diagrammed extracts from 
Thanatopsis, but I was a young man before I knew 
that Thanatopsis had any reference to death. 

Reader, which do you think is better, for a child to 
try to understand why " I would go if I could," should 
be parsed in the past tense when it is in answer to 
the question, "Are you going to the city to-morrow ? " 
or for him to be able to tell how the President of the 
United States is elected? 

There is no excuse for sending into the world at 
this — the beginning of the twentieth century — any 
boy or girl without a knowledge of the fundamental 
principles of this government, while a course of study 
is required which is to teach him how to diagram 
sentences, correct false syntax, or parse nouns which 
could not possibly be misused though they were to be 
repeated a thousand times. 

It is all right to hurrah for the flag, and to pass a 
law saying that it must be raised above our school 
houses every Monday morning. But we must not 
forget that it is not sufficient to hurrah for the flag. 
The seeing of the flag waving over the school houses 
is of very little use if the child does not understand 
the fundamental principles for which it stands. 

Toward the last of the old stone school house days 
there came a teacher who, the first day asked all who 



IN THE FIFTIES. 23 

were to take grammar to come forward to the reci- 
tation seats. Three or four of the larger pupils re- 
mained in their seats. The teacher asked if they 
were not going to take the study. All said they were 
not and at recess talked it over, giving as their reason 
that they thought it would be so much lost time. 
During the first recitation they sat listening to the 
lesson and, though they could not have expressed it 
as here given, they realized that this teacher was get- 
ting at the subject from the standpoint of the child 
and not from the standpoint of the educated adult. 
No error went by without being corrected. This 
teacher seemed to know, too, when a child had arrived 
at an age when he must either know the why or the 
correction would mean nothing to him. 

" Children," she would say, " I notice that many of 
you say, ' he don't ' when talking among yourselves. 
It is not good English for you to use don't in that 
way. Let me tell you how to remember. Don't is 
not to be used with any of the three pronouns that I 
now write on the blackboard." Then stepping to the 
board she wrote in large writing, " HE, SHE, IT." 
" You may use don't with any other pronoun, but 
don't forget these three." At the class she would dis- 
cuss the reason why, and you may be sure the large 
pupils who had not taken the subject were all ears and 
did but little studying during the recitation, and more 
than once regretted that they had not joined the class. 

I recall another lesson. " Children," she said, " I 
am going to talk to you to-day about some great little 
words. I call them this because they are so small in 



24 SCHOOL DAYS. 

size and so great in importance. I say, the book is 
the table. I do not tell what is true; that is, I do 
not show the proper relation between the book and 
the table. I must add a little word, to show the true 
relation ; that is I must say the book is ON the table. 
What a difference in the meaning of our sentence is 
given by simply adding the small word ' ON.' These 
words that show the relation between their object and 
some other word are called prepositions. (Here the 
new word was written on the board and the class were 
asked to copy it, thus were all new words presented 
by this teacher.) There are quite a number of them 
but the most important for us to take now are the fol- 
lowing: on, at, by, for, in, with, under, over, between 
and from. We must remember an important truth 
here, viz. : object pronouns are to follow prepositions 
and not subject pronouns. So many people forget this 
I desire to impress it on your minds so that you will 
not join the army of for getters. If I were to say 
what I now write on the board, viz. : ' I heard him 
say so between you and — .' We should fill in the 
dash with an object pronoun, as, I heard him say so 
between you and ME. Where people make the mis- 
take most often is when there is a noun between the 
preposition and the pronoun as, He called for Jennie 
and me. People too often say in such sentences, He 
called for Jennie and I. If they would stop to think 
a moment they would know that they would never 
say, ' He called for I ! ' The fact that the noun is 
there makes no difference as to the relation between 
the preposition and the pronoun." 



IN THE FIFTIES. ^5 

How it opened our eyes to grammar and how we, 
who had not joined the class wished we had, but child 
like, were ashamed to admit it to the teacher. 

Miss Composite, for that is what we shall call her, 
knew how to discipline as well as to teach grammar, 
as will be shown. Dick, one of the boys, the term 
before, when Miss K. was teaching, brought an ugly 
picture of a woman's head which he had cut out of a 
comic paper, and fitted it around the neck of Miss 
K.'s cape. When she went to get the cape she saw 
what had been done and turning to the school began 
to show her temper in a frightful manner, saying, 
" I've been insulted. I'll not stand for any such 
thing. If I find out who did this I'll turn him out of 
school; do you hear, turn him out of school:' How 
red she got. How the little fellows trembled ! How 
the older ones smothered their delight till we got out 
of doors and what fun we had talking it over. It 
worked so well that Dick tried it on with Miss Com- 
posite the very first week (he would not have thought 
of such a thing after that time, as she had too many 
friends by the end of the first week). When Miss C. 
got her cape she at once glanced around the room, 
knowing that most of the eyes would center on the 
guilty one. Then turning towards Dick she looked 
him right in the eye and with a smile said, " Richard, 
don't you know that you should not bring your pho- 
tographs to school ? " 

Poor Dick. You should have seen him. He 
seemed to turn red, blue and yellow. And the chil- 
dren; how they did laugh at him. Miss C. made a 



26 SCHOOL DAYS. 

friend of every one in the room then and there. 
Even Dick became one of her best. I recall other 
things that impressed us that term, but I shall devote 
the whole of the next chapter to them. 

" He who has the God-given light of hope in his breast, can 
help on many others in this world's darkness, not to his own 
loss, but to his precious gain." 

Henry Ward Beecher. 



CHAPTER V. 
MISS COMPOSITE. 

Miss C. would not allow a word to be mispro- 
nounced, or an error in grammar to be made, without 
correcting it at once. Always in such an indirect 
way as not to offend. She felt that this was a part 
of her work. Never for a moment thinking that she 
had no time to do it. 

She did not call on the bright pupils more fre- 
quently than on the dull ones. She knew that the 
diamond will always be in the rough, unless it is pol- 
ished. She knew the dull pupils would not learn if 
the bright ones did all the talking. She also knew 
that bright pupils, as a rule, are attentive while dull 
pupils are inclined to be inattentive. 

She never became tired of correcting faults of 
pupils, or of telling them what to do and how to do 
it. She felt that children have rights, and so long as 
they do not understand a subject they have a right to 
ask and receive explanations. 

She never did for a pupil what the pupil could with 
reasonable effort do for himself. She knew that the 
mind can become vigorous only by vigorous exercise; 
that a class that is helped too much will soon learn to 
wait for the teacher to do its work and answer its 
27 



28 SCHOOL DAYS. 

questions. That children should be trained to ob- 
serve, to do, and to tell. 

She never began a recitation until she had prepared 
it herself, and decided how much of the work the 
class could do for itself. Feeling that a teacher who 
does not prepare herself will unconsciously do for her 
class what they might do for themselves. 

She never allowed a pupil to ask a question, give 
an opinion, or leave his seat, without first obtaining 
permission. She knew that laxity in this respect 
would lead to frequent interruptions, and that in a 
short time it would be hard to tell who was teacher 
and who pupil. 

She never spoke in a loud or unnatural tone of 
voice when teaching. She was always herself, and 
did not overtax her organs of speech. Knowing 
that if she did, the whole class would soon adopt the 
same tone, and tumult and disorder would result. 

She never called the answer to a question wrong, 
merely because it was not in the exact words of the 
text book. This was a new departure in the old stone 
school house. But she knew there is more than one 
way to express the same thought. If the answer were 
faulty she corrected it; but commended the pupil for 
his effort, if it were in the fight direction, and, hence 
did not dampen his ardor. 

She never used a commanding tone of voice when 
asking a favor, or when giving a direction. She 
knew that no one enjoys being commanded; that one 
would rather be asked to do a thing, than commanded 



IN THE FIFTIES. 29 

to do it. She knew that " please " is an easy word 
to say, and that its use never harmed a teacher. 

She never asked a pupil if he had been out of order 
when she knew that he had been. She felt that if she 
did the pupil would be tempted to say " No," thus 
adding a falsehood to his other offense. When she 
knew that a pupil had been out of order she dealt 
with him accordingly, as a rule just as she dealt with 
Dick. 

She never hesitated to ask the pardon of a pupil or 
class when she found that she had accused them 
wrongfully. She felt that morally speaking, it was 
her duty to apologize in such a case. The pupils 
honored and respected her for doing it, and when 
their turn came, they did not hesitate to follow her 
good example. 

She never refused to hear a pupil's side of a story. 
She gave him a hearing after, if not in school hours. 
She felt that every person is entitled to a fair trial, no 
matter what his offense may be. She thought there 
I should be no absolute monarchy in a republican form 
of government. 

She did not look always at the faults, and refuse to 
see the good in her pupils. Her motto was, " What- 
soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them." 

She never allowed a pupil to sit in the class with 
untidy head, or dirty hands and face. She felt that 
inattention to such things could not fail to have a 
demoralizing effect on the class. 

She never found fault with a child for doing what 



30 SCHOOL DAYS. 

she herself was guilty of doing. If the act was one 
that her age permitted she would reason with the 
child trying to show why it was worse for him than 
for her. 

She was never satisfied with the careless or noisy 
performance of a duty, and never neglected to repeat 
her request until it was properly obeyed. She felt 
that habits formed when one is young are not easily 
broken when one is old; that there was no better way 
to show the class that she was not satisfied, than to 
repeat the direction until they did properly what was 
required of them. She was careful never to shozv 
any temper; she would simply repeat the request in a 
calm, though positive manner, until her direction was 
followed. 

She never neglected an opportunity to show her ap- 
preciation of pupils' efforts to do right, or to instill 
into the minds of pupils a sense of the nobleness of do- 
ing right because it was right. She knew many of the. 
children in the school never went to church or Sab- 
bath school. Their only model of manhood or wom- 
anhood was their teacher. She felt how important it 
was that the model be a perfect one. 

She never took the time of the class to do her own 
work. She felt that she had no more right to take 
their time than she had to take their money. She 
knew that she could not write letters, make out re- 
ports, etc., and teach at the same time. She felt that 
her duty during school hours was to teach. 

She was not changeable in her discipline. She was 
every day alike. Steady, uniform, even, regular dis- 



IN THE FIFTIES. 3 1 

cipline was maintained. " Never a tyrant — always 
a governor," was her rule. 

She never tried to startle a class into being- orderly 
or attentive. She knew that the class would learn to 
wait for the " thunder clap " before giving attention. 
She felt that a low, but steady, firm tone of voice 
would do the work much better. She thought the 
desk was not made to pound upon, nor the floor to 
stamp upon ; and that neither pounding nor stamping 
was of the least use in obtaining order. The desk in 
the old stone school house gave evidence that this had 
not always been the rule. 

She never ordered a thing done, when a suggestion 
would do as well. She would say, " Boys, I would 
not do that." We never heard her say, " Boys, turn 
this way and mind your own business, or I will give 
every one of you a mark." We had " markers " in 
the old stone school house, now and then. " Chil- 
dren, what are you studying for?" asked a visitor 
one day and the whole school with one voice yelled, 
"Marks!" Which was "as true as preaching" that 
term. 

Miss C.'s dress was always neat and clean, not 
costly but neat. How the girls did copy her. What 
respect they had for her. A class that respects a 
teacher is not hard to discipline. 

She never called a pupil a sneak, or liar or dunce, 
or fool, nor did she ever make use of any other epi- 
thet of the kind, she was too much of a lady to do so. 
She knew that such language was unbecoming and 
would cause the pupils to think ill of her. She knew 



32 SCHOOL DAYS. 

that it hurts a boy's feelings, arouses his resentment, 
and makes him surly and unmanageable to be so 
treated. 

She greeted us every morning with, " Good morn- 
ing, children," or " Good morning, boys and girls." 
She taught us how to be polite to her and to one an- 
other. 

She never allowed the pupils to wear their wrap- 
pings, overcoats, or overshoes in school and never 
neglected the proper ventilation of her room, feeling 
that inattention to these matters might endanger the 
health of the children. They were not old enough to 
have good judgment, and if they were to err, she felt 
that it would be her fault, as she was older and ought 
to know better. 

Do you wonder that we loved her? Is it at all 
surprising that we learned that term? Take our 
country over and there are hundreds upon hundreds 
of just such teachers, hard-working, untiring, con- 
scientious, enthusiastic, who never have received, and 
who must never hope to receive their full reward in 
this world. Such teachers are zvorth their weight in 
gold. And yet there are trustees that will stand and 
quibble over five dollars a month as between such a 

teacher and a " Daddy " W . as we boys called 

him. 

Miss C. was one day teaching a class of little chil- 
dren the different kinds of angles, as, right, obtuse, 
and acute. Drawing a right angle on the board she 
called their attention to it and then named it. Next 
she drew an acute angle and called their attention 



IN THE FIFTIES. 33 

to the difference between them. Just at this point 
one little fellow began shaking his hand in the air, 
as children will when very much in earnest. " What 
is it, my boy? " said Miss C. When the little fellow, 
who by his earnestness had caused all to look in 
his direction, exclaimed with a beaming face, " We 
have a ' cute ' baby home, too." We were all on 
the point of shouting with laughter when Miss C. 
quickly raised her hands to her lips and then ex- 
cusing the little class, telling them to> go out doors and 
play, turned as she closed the door after them, and 
burst into a hearty laugh in which we all joined. She 
would not for the world have hurt that little boy's 
feelings or have done anything to encourage him to 
become the school clown. 



" Many arguments might be adduced to show that the princi- 
ple, that the main business of the teacher is to get the pupil to 
teach himself, lies at the basis of the entire art of Instruction. 
The teacher who, by whatever means, secures this object, is an 
efficient artist ; he who fails in this point fails altogether ; and the 
various grades of efficiency are defined by the degrees of approx- 
imation to this standard." 

Joseph Payne. 



54 



CHAPTER VI. 
" DADDY W." 

In the last chapter I mentioned a " Daddy " W — . 
One of the boys who was in his school is now a man 
pronounced by all who know him a gentleman. He 
is a quiet, unassuming, dignified man. He has a 
rich, thoughtful mind. He is one with whom I de- 
light to converse because I always learn. Sympa- 
thetic as a child, kind hearted and true. He now has 
a very responsible position, is in fact, the principal of 
one of the largest schools in one of the largest cities 
of the Union. When a boy he went to school and 
he remembers just how he felt as a child, a grand 
good thing, by the way, inasmuch as he has chosen 
the profession of teaching for a life's work. For he 
who cannot remember how he felt and thought as a 
child, is hardly calculated to be the disciplinarian of 
children. 

He was not always good in school. I was out 
walking with him one day when we met an old school- 
mate, they shook hands and for ten or fifteen min- 
utes talked of old times. When we started on our 
walk, my friend said, " I wonder how that man re- 
members me, he was one of the goody-goody boys in 
school, and I, well, well, I fear he recalls things about 

35 



36 SCHOOL DAYS. 

me that I have forgotten myself." Then after a mo- 
ment, I looked at him and saw an expression on his 
face I had never seen there before. Stopping he 
turned to me and said, " We had one teacher who 
was not fit to teach a cat. I was in his class for three 
years, and I honestly believe that had I been in his 
class three years longer / would have ended my days 
in State Prison. Let us not talk about it." 

Think you my readers, this teacher ever did any- 
thing for the good of the profession he had dared to 
assume? Oh! the influence of such a man, where 
will it end? What think you that teacher was work- 
ing for? For the good he could do? Had he any 
spirit in his work? Did he give his pupils a thought 
outside of his school ? Which, think you, he cared 
for the most, their average per cent to show company, 
or their everlasting good ? He certainly made grave 
mistakes. His excuse might be that he did it through 
ignorance of child nature. But I charge him that is 
no excuse, for he, when he took his position, assumed 
all of its responsibilities. Rather than to have had an 
influence over this one boy for bad, let him seek a 
livelihood anywhere else, or as David Page expresses 
it, " Failing to gain it by other means, let starvation 
seize his body, and send the soul back to its Maker as 
it is, rather than he should incur the fearful guilt of 
poisoning youthful minds and drag them down to his 
pitiable level." 

" Oh !. let not then unskillful hands attempt 
To play the harp, whose tones, whose living tones, 
Are left forever on the strings. Better far 



IN THE FIFTIES. 37 

That heaven's lightnings blast this very soul, 
And sink it back to Chaos' lowest depths, 
Than knowingly, by word or deed, he send 
A blight upon the trusting mind of youth." 

"But, how did you get where you are?" I could 
not help asking. " Ah," he answered, " that is an- 
other story. When I left ' Daddy's ' school I went 
to the school under Mr. H — , who changed my whole 
life. God bless his memory." " How did he reach 
you ? " I asked. " Well, first, he trusted me, and sec- 
ond he let me help him." He let him help him ! Ah, 
teachers, here was the secret. How often have par- 
ents spoiled their children by not letting the little 
children help them. Mother is sweeping and Tot 
comes and says, " Mama, let me help you sweep with 
my little broom?" What is the reply? "No, no, 
go away,, you will make more work. Now, stop, 
or I will have to send you in the other room. You 
had better go there right away, as I am in a hurry." 
Papa is just as bad, and in a few years when the child 
is a little older the parents say, " Willie is never will- 
ing to do anything. I would rather do it myself than 
ask him to do it for me." Little dreaming that they 
have driven him away so often in the past that they 
have robbed the child of all the ardor he once had for 
helping mama and papa. 

When the trusting child comes to you 

Asking that he do his part. 
Do not give a hasty answer, 

Do not wound his little heart. 



38 SCHOOL DAYS. 

If refusals come too often, 

There will surely be a day 
When you long to have him help you, 

He will turn the other way. 

Oftentimes the thoughtful teacher 
Gives the thoughtless boy a start, 

When she simply lets him help her, 
She has won his little heart. 

Ah ! I hope that I may never 
Put a blight on trusting youth, 

That I never dampen ardor, 
That I always stand for truth ; 

For I love these little children, 
With their hearts so frank and free, 

And it is a mighty tribute 
When they — so fresh from God — love me, 



CHAPTER VII. 

EXAMINATION — 1861-1888. 

Perhaps nothing will better show the advance 
made by the public schools since the Fifties than to 
quote from an article written by Charles F. King, who 
at one time was Manager of the National School of 
Methods. He says, " We have a very distinct recol- 
lection of the first examination in 1861, for the pur- 
pose of testing our fitness to teach a district school. 
The questions propounded were as follows : 

1. What is a conjunction? 

2. How many vowels in the alphabet? 

3. What is a neuter verb? Give one. 

4. Define he; conjugate hear. 

5. Give the opposite gender of duck, earl, nun, 
wizard, duke. 

6. Why do you in dividing one fraction by an- 
other invert the divisor? 

7. Give the table for apothecaries' weight. 

8. What is true discount? 

9. How do you explain the rule of three? 

10. Where is Cape Fear? 

11. Bound Michigan. 

12. What is the capital of Beloochistan? 

13. Name the principal islands of Malaysia. 

39 



40 SCHOOL DAYS. 

14. Read this extract from Webster. (Peroration 
at Bunker Hill.) 

15. Spell the following words: Chameleon, eligible, 
querulous, dyspepsia, pinnacle, elixir, cylinder, mea- 
sles, caterpillar, venerate. 

Next comes the list for 1888. 

1. Which would you develop first in a child, the 
power of reasoning or that of observation? Why? 
How? 

2. What place has the kindergarten in education? 

3. Do you favor manual training? If so, why? 

4. What studies should be taught topically? 

5. Who was Pestalozzi? Comenius? 

6. Name five other eminent educators in the past; 
five of the present day. 

7. How many of the following books do you own ? 
viz. : Page's Theory and Practice, Quincy Methods, 
Johonnot's Principles and Practice of Teaching, 
Fitch's Lectures on Teaching, Parker's Talks on 
Teaching, Payne's Lectures on the Science and Art of 
Teaching, Bain's Education as a Science. Sully's Psy- 
chology, Compayre's History of Pedagogy, Quick's 
Educational Reformers. How many have you read ? 

8. Write a review of some educational book. 

9. How would you improve the conversational 
form of your pupils? 

10. What is the best way of getting pupils to read 
books ? 

11. What is the best method of teaching reading to 
beginners ? Why ? 

12. Describe some well chosen busy-work. 



IN THE FIFTIES. 4 1 

13. How can the attention of pupils be best secured ? 

14. How much time would you devote to commer- 
cial geography? 

15. Name four good educational papers or maga- 
zines. 

16. State the means and proper appliances necessary 
for the proper performance of the work of the teacher 
and students in history. 



" The geography of the infant school should be pictorial and 
descriptive. Commencing with the elements of natural scenery 
that fall under the child's observation, and carefully noting their 
distance and relative direction from the school and from each 
other — the hill, the mountain, the brook, the river, the plain, the 
forest, the moor, the rich mould, the island, the sea, the cliff, the 
cape, the village, the city, that may be seen in prospect from the 
school ; the productions of his own land — its animals, trees and 
flowers — the men of his own land, their occupations, customs, 
habits, food, clothing ; it should seek to make the child realize the 
corresponding features of other lands by comparison with what 
it has observed in its own.'' 

From Early Education by James Currie, Scotland. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
" GEOGAFY." 

We studied " geogafy " in the old stone school 
house, too; both in the big room and the little room. 
The only difference between the book used in the little 
room and that used in the big room was in thickness. 
Each had the same text and had the same maps. Ask, 
" What is an island ? " and all would yell, " An island 
is a body of land surrounded by water." Then had 
we been asked what is the meaning of surrounded, 
there would have been no yelling, as it is doubtful 
if any of us knew. I shall never forget the day a 
visitor, a teacher, by the way, up in pedagogy as I now 
know, sat listening to us recite definition after defini- 
tion with a smile on his face. At last the teacher 
asked him if he would like to ask some questions. At 
first he declined but afterward changed his mind. His 
first question was, " Name the Middle Atlantic States." 
We named them. His next, " Who ever saw any of 
or any part of the Middle Atlantic States? Hands 
up." No hands. " Well, who never saw any of the 
Middle Atlantic States? Hands up." Up went all 
of the hands ! Then, " Does the St. Lawrence river 
flow up hill or down hill?" "Up hill," with one 
voice. We knew by the way the teacher looked that 
something was wrong, but did not know what. We 
43 



44 SCHOOL DAYS. 

were sure we were right because we had seen it on 
the map. Now came, " Which is higher, Lake Erie 
or Lake Ontario? " " Lake Ontario," again from the 
whole class. Now came the last but not least, " You 
may all point to the north," and every index finger of 
our right hand pointed to the ceiling of the room. 
The teacher was heard to say, " Thank you very much. 
I have learned a lesson." Somehow, after that day 
the geography lessons became more interesting. 

How wise we had been as to the Danube, Euphrates, 
Amazon, and all of the other rivers and cities of Eu- 
rope, Asia, Africa and South America. As to local 
geography, we could not have bounded our native 
county, nor so much as told the points of the compass 
in our own town, had the master's switch been ten 
times as long, wonderful as were its powers of per- 
suasion. I have often wondered, yet have never un- 
derstood, why that switch could so often bring out the 
right answer to a question from us boys, who for the 
life of us, could not tell how we ever knew it. 

I cannot resist here telling a good joke on Bill, 
whom I have mentioned before. Bill had neglected 
to get his lesson and bargained with Dick to tell him 
the answers when he might be called upon to recite. 
His first question was, " In what direction is Texas 
from New York ? " Bill knew nothing about it, and 
Dick much less, but whispered, " Easty-westy," which 
Bill bawled out loud enough to be heard in all parts of 
the room to the delight of the whole school. The next 
minute Bill was having an introduction to Dr. 
" Beech " as we used to say. When the class went to 



IN THE FIFTIES. 45 

their seats Bill gave Dick to understand, by signs well 
known to boy life, that he might expect a settlement 
after school. 

" Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain, 
Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; 
Awake but one, and lo, what myriads rise ! 
Each stamps its image as the other flies." 

How true the above ; as I sit here writing of the old 
days, there come to me the images of three of my old 
teachers. That of Mr. B. because of a great wrong 
he did, that of Mary M., because of her great kind- 
ness and that of Mr. H., because of his six feet of 
avoirdupois, and his carriage whip, warranted whale- 
bone! 

Before these teachers there had been Mr. X., who 
showed no more evidence of knowing how to govern 
children than a snail does of rapid transit. What a 
term that was ! I mention this because of what is to 
follow. Soon after X. left it was reported that Mr. B. 
was coming to teach. I chanced to meet a chum on 
the village green, when he asked me if I had heard 
there was to be a new teacher. I had and told him 
so. Then we began to talk things over ; all about X's 
school ; how bad we had been and how much better we 
ought to do. Think of it, teachers, two boys twelve 
and thirteen years old talking all by themselves in this 
way. Did you ever think boys got together and had 
such talks? My chum said he had made up his mind 
to be a good boy in school and try to please Mr. B. I 
promised that I would try, too. We shook hands on 



46 SCHOOL DAYS. 

it and parted. When the day for opening school 
came, we started for school rilled with good resolu- 
tions. Everything passed off nicely the first day until 
our class was called to the recitation. The teacher 
had called upon me to recite, it seems, though I had 
not heard him. Stepping up to me he said, " Well, 
sir, why don't you answer me? See here, young man, 
I want you to understand that I have heard all about 
you. (The busy-bodies had been to work. How 
many there are in the world.) You may just make 
up your mind that if you come to school, you have got 
to mind me, and with no fooling about it either. I've 
been told how you cut up, and — " I may as well stop 
here as to give the whole harangue. How I hated 
that man, and I fear that I was the means of his sin- 
ning more than once during that term. All good 
resolutions went for naught. I am indignant, even 
now, when I think of his abuse that day. More so, 
however, toward those who felt it their duty to give 
him his information. Teachers, don't, please don't, 
say to the teacher who is to have your class next term, 
" Wait till you get so and so. He will make it warm 
for you." How do you know but that the bad boy 
of today is to be the best boy in school tomorrow? 
How do you know but that he may have met his chum 
and talked it over? Let the one who gets the class 
find out who are the bad boys and then, when she 
comes to you talk it over with her. In this way you 
will have given them a chance, the least you can do. 

I know of a boy who went to a new school with 
his card marked in deportment, " Very Poor." The 



IN THE FIFTIES. 47 

principal said to him, " Well, well, that is a bad record 
to bring, but perhaps yon are going to try to do better. 
Anyhow, I am not going to judge you by what you 
have done for others. I shall see what you do for me. 
I tell you what I will do ; I'll throw this card away and 
take you to the teacher myself." This he did, saying 
nothing to the teacher as to his past. In about two 
months he asked the teacher how the boy was doing 
and she said, " O, he is one of the good boys, — 
never does anything bad, and always has his lessons." 



The Child. 

: He who checks a child with terror. 
Stops its play or stills its song, 
Not alone commits an error ; 
But a great and grievous wrong. 

Give it play and never fear it, 
Active life is no defect, 
Never, never, break its spirit, 
Curb it only to direct. 

Would you stop the flowing river, 
Thinking it would cease to flow? 
Onward it must flow forever, 
Better teach it where to go." 



48 



CHAPTER IX. 
MR. H. AND HIS WHIP. 

Mr. H. and his whip warranted whalebone. Here 
was order for you ! How still his school was ! How 
quickly we obeyed when he gave the signal! Yes. 
and how quickly we moved if we did not obey at once! 
What do you suppose we care for the memory of Mr. 
H. today ? I do not recall anything he ever taught us, 
and only think of him to laugh at him. To this day 
when any of the old boys meet, we talk of him as " old 
H." Mister never seems to fit. When we talk of 
him it is to recall some one he pounded. No doubt 
the Board of Education thought Mr. H. was a great 
success because he had such good ( ?) order. Let me 
give some explanations that may be useful to any 
young teachers who may read this chapter : 

H. let us see that we could vex him,— the worst 
thing he could do. Two little fellows, in the first 
grade, were one clay heard talking at recess time about 
a substitute teacher they were having that day. One 
said to the other, "Say, didn't we make her mad? 
Wasn't it fun?" The other answered, "Yes, let's 
do it again when we go in, will ye?" Remember 
they were only seven years old, but they had " caught 
on." 

He whipped only when he was angry, — the next 
49 



50 SCHOOL DAYS. 

worse thing he could do. He was changeable in his 
discipline, excusing a rank offence today and punish- 
ing a slight offence tomorrow, — a serious fault in a 
teacher. He would threaten us, — we accepted the 
threats as a challenge. He began the first day to read 
off the rules of the school. The rules, many of them, 
suggested to us what to do. Read a rule to a school as 
follows : " The rule of this school is that no one must 
write on the side of the building." The chances are 
ten to one that there will be a dozen marks within 
twenty-four hours. No one had thought of marking 
the building till the rule was read. H. had hobbies. 
One was " Order." Another, Spelling. A third, 
showing off for Company. 

Yes, we had spelling that term. I can see the line 
we used to toe as we stood in a row reaching nearly the ' 
whole length of the school room. It was as important 
to toe the line squarely as to spell correctly. I think, 
perhaps, more so, as my image of the line is much 
sharper, while I write, than is that of the words we 
spelled. 

When assigning a lesson the teacher would hold 
up the spelling book in one hand, and draw three 
fingers of the other hand over the three lines extend- 
ing from the top to the bottom of the page, and say 
without a smile, " Class will take the next three lines 
for tomorrow's lesson ; and any one who misses two 
words will have to stay after school and spell the 
whole lesson. Sometimes we did and then again we 
did not, so we were inclined to run the risk that the 



IN THE FIFTIES. 5 1 

teacher had a date, knowing if he had, we would not 

have to stay, miss or no miss. 

The lesson would not only contain from forty to 
sixty words, but one-half of them were such as we 
had never seen anywhere but in the spelling book and 
many of them we have never seen since. Why did 
no one see how absurd it was to cram the children's 
heads with eight thousand words when the teaching 
of four thousand of these words was as senseless as the 
words were useless ? 

The reason is plain to me now. They did not real- 
ize that teaching is a profession and that to succeed 
they must keep up a continuous study of the best 
writers in the profession. As well might a lawyer 
endeavor to practice law with no knowledge of the 
statute laws of his state, or a doctor to practice medi- 
cine with no knowledge of physiology, as for a teacher 
to teach with no knowledge of the mind he is trying 
to develop. 

" O, woe to those who trample on the mind, 
That deathless thing! They know not what they do, 
Nor what they deal with. Man, perchance may bind 
The flower his step hath bruised ; or light anew 
The torch he quenches ; or to music wind 
Again the lyre-string from his touch that flew ; 
But for the soul, O, tremble and beware 
To lay rude hands upon God's mysteries there ! " 

A non-professional teacher — that is one who has 
no scientific knowledge of the human being's mind, — 
has no right to be the disciplinarian of children. Such 



52 SCHOOL DAYS. 

teachers are too impatient, too thoughtless, too unsym- 
pathetic to deal with children. 

If they have to do with none but bright goody- 
goody boys and girls they will do very well. If a 
child comes under their care who has any physical de- 
formity, they are kind enough and will not admit of any 
ridicule ; perhaps they will even be patient with a lame 
boy because of his limping; and if his arm be broken 
will not scold because he cannot do his writing les- 
son. Yet, on the other hand, a poor little fellow 
who has a deformity of mind receives no help or sym- 
pathy from them ; they only know that he is dull, hard 
to teach, difficult to interest in his work. 

It may be the child inherits a bad temper, or per- 
haps a nervousness that causes him to be at all times 
in motion. He may have inherited a suspicious na- 
ture, selfishness, in fact, many of the things that are 
bad and may be inherited. Now, how does the non- 
professional teacher look at such children? He looks 
upon them as being in his way for several reasons; 
first perhaps — they will keep the class average down 
on examination day or mar the order when company 
is present. Such teachers never stop to think that if 
it were not for just such boys and girls there would 
be no need of them as teachers; that it is just this 
class of pupils that gives us our positions. Any old 
quack of a doctor can prescribe for a case of tempo- 
rary indigestion, but where a genuine case of dys- 
pepsia takes hold of the patient, the quack hacks away 
at him till he (the patient) is ready to end his life to 
get rid of his sufferings. When, on the other hand, 



IN THE FIFTIES. 53 

the professional doctor takes hold of him, studies his 
symptoms, reads up on the disease and soon has his 
patient well. So with the quack teacher when dealing 
with mental dyspepsia. He hacks away at the child, 
calls him a dunce, tells him he is bad, finds fault with 
him, pesters him, in short makes his school life too 
warm for him until finally " school " and " prison " 
become synonymous terms to him. The professional 
teacher, on the other hand, studies such children, reads 
up on them, realizes he has a chronic case on his hands 
which will not yield at once to his skill, works away 
day after day knowing that the educating of this child 
does not mean the learning of rules in grammar, or 
of descriptions of rivers, or in the working of prob- 
lems. These are all right in their places but the pa- 
tient must first be made ready for them ; and, though 
at the end of the term, the child may not know " A " 
from " X " he lias been far more benefited and more 
highly educated than others who have mastered the 
whole alphabet, and when the dull or bad boy once 
begins convalescing he will out-strip the others so 
rapidly and leave them so far behind as to cause them 
to forget they were ever in the same class with him; 
and best of all is, he owes his growth to his patient 
teacher. 

And now, dear reader, to which class of teachers do 
you wish to belong? To which class, do you think, 
Prof. James B. Richards belonged? * Think you, my 
friends, that Prof. Richards had a knowledge of So- 

* See chapter XVI. 



54 SCHOOL DAYS. 

crates, Plato, Aristotle, Lock, Seneca and Pestalozzi? 
Did he go at his work blindly ? Had he not a definite 
purpose in his teachings? Could he by trusting to 
chance have accomplished his grand, noble work? 
And is it not fair to conclude that any who fail or do 
but fairly good work may trace their failure back to 
the want of a knowledge of the principles as laid down 
by the old Greek and Roman philosophers ? Are they 
not all, if not independent students inclined to do 
the same thing, viz. : Confine themselves mainly to 
the imitating of their teachers? 

Why did your teacher and your teacher's teacher 
call out some twenty or thirty pupils at a time and 
have them toe the mark while they pronounced some 
fifty or sixty words for the pupils to spell orally? 
Was it not because they had not the opportunity, or 
had failed to embrace it, of becoming acquainted with 
principles and methods of teaching? Is it any wonder 
that their teaching was mechanical, soulless, devoid of 
high aims ? Is it at all surprising that they exercised 
very little if any influence upon the development of 
intelligence and character in pupils? There was no 
individuality in their work and hence they could not 
develop any individuality in their pupils. And inas- 
much as they were unable to contribute to the growth 
of correct principles in the profession, they were rather 
an impediment to the progress of the profession. Per- 
haps they had not the time for the study of the pro- 
fession. Now stop a moment and think how very 
weak, how absurd such a reason is. They had the 



IN THE FIFTIES. 55 

assurance to ask for a position to do a work which 
they had not the time to learn. 

Think, ladies, of your paying a dressmaker two 
dollars a day to experiment on your new dress till 
she learn to make one. I say paying a dressmaker 
whose only preparation to make herself a dressmaker 
is to present herself and ask for a position as such; 
or who may have been through a dressmaking train- 
ing class, and trod the sewing machine while some one 
stood by to help her guide the work and who claimed 
in this way to have become an expert in the art and 
to need no more study but practice only; how many 
will hire her? 

" Well," you say, " what about such men as Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, Webster, Clay and hundreds of oth- 
ers, who became so great and were pupils in the 
old-time school ? " The teachers of such pupils de- 
serve but little credit. Such boys will learn if shut 
up in a room by themselves ; though you should bind 
them hand and foot yet will they gain knowledge. 
The teacher who deserves credit is he who awakens 
the sleepy mind ; he who reaches that which all others 
have failed to reach. He it is that, like the sculptor 
who had finished his masterpiece, may clasp his hands 
and with joy exclaim, " This is my handiwork ! " 

"Well," says another, " I know of teachers who do 
not study their profession and do a grand, good work." 
How do you know ? let me ask. " Why ! look at their 
results." What are they? " A class average of over 
90% ! ! " Ah ! yes, but I saw an answer to that in the 
" New York School Journal." " Examinations, as or- 



56 SCHOOL DAYS. 

dinarily conducted, do not give the result of good 
teaching, because they are based upon the supposition 
that knowledge is everything. A cross, selfish, and 
even brutal teacher may make a good text-book 
scholar. They may know a wonderful number of 
facts in history and geography; they may be quick in 
mathematical calculations, and excellent in the lan- 
guages, and yet with all this they may send their pupils 
out into the world fit only to become Wall Street 
sharpers, boodlers, vicious and tricky politicians. 
They will probably get money, live in palaces, drive 
fast horses, and be among the " successful " men of 
the world. But are these things the measures of their 
success? By no means. Just such men pulled Rome 
down, and just such men will cause the ruin of our 
country if it falls. The imparting of knowledge is of 
minor importance. We are running wild over strength 
of body and mind, and neglecting the culture of the 
soul. 

There are some who will say this is " nonsense," 
'*' preaching," and all that. It is not nonsense, and if 
it is preaching, the more of it the better. We want 
some earthquake that will shake a few of these funda- 
mental truths into the inner consciousness of thou- 
sands of teachers who are wild over facts. They are 
everlastingly asking " Who ? " " What ? ' " When ? " 
" How ? " This is the beginning, middle, and end of 
all their teaching. If they find a pupil who can tell 
the name of Queen Victoria's great grandmother, or 
conjugate the Greek irregular verbs, and give Cicero's 
idiomatic expressions, they at once pronounce him 



IN THE FIFTIES. 57 

" excellent." Special results stand at the end of all 
their ideas of school work." 

Of course there always have been and always will 
be hundreds and hundreds of hardworking, untiring, 
conscientious, progressive, enthusiastic teachers at 
work. But, oh ! how our honorable profession has 
been made to suffer by the thoughtless, incompetent, 
money-loving, one-sided, narrow-minded, covetous old 
sinners who have passed themselves off as representa- 
tive members of it. One of the worst things that can 
happen to a school, is to have teachers who can do 
what passes for good work but who are either too 
lazy to read or too stingy to pay for professional books. 

" Why," say they, " I do not find anything new in 
them." 

No, of course you do not, and why? Because that 
noble, God-loving, high-minded teacher, who taught 
you, years ago, was a reader; and put into practice, 
what you learned of her, without knowing it. But 
you will not impress your pupils as she impressed you, 
for her success came from the heart, while yours 
comes only from the head. 

The great trouble with teachers who do not study 
their profession and the laws of the mind is, that they 
make tugboats of themselves, and pull and puff and 
tug away at their pupils, pulling them through the 
waves against the tide ; whereas had they known more 
of the laws of the mind, were they in love with the 
work, they would have seen how unnecessary all this 
was ; and instead of taking the place of the tug, would 
have taken the place of the rudder, and simply guided 



58 SCHOOL DAYS. 

their pupils in the right direction, to help themselves 
through. 

We sometimes complain that we are too poorly com- 
pensated for our work. If there are hundreds and 
hundreds of teachers who are underpaid there are 
hundreds and hundreds who are overpaid. Many a 
teacher is receiving good pay this very moment who 
is not worth his salt as a teacher. Whose fault is it? 
Yours, my reader, and mine and every teacher's in 
the country, if we do nothing to raise the standard of 
the profession. 



CHAPTER X. 
MR. H. AND HIS HOBBIES. 

As said in the last chapter one of the hobbies of 
Mr. H. was spelling. When a boy we were filled with 
admiration for Sir Isaac Newton, we admired Benja- 
min Franklin, we appreciated the plays of Shake- 
speare, the force of Webster, the statesmanship of 
Hamilton, and the generalship of Washington; but 
these did not awaken our indescribable wonder, our 
unbounded amazement, as did the performances of 
some of the boys and girls, in the old stone school 
house. It was beyond our comprehension how they 
could stand and spell the school down by rolling out 
letter after letter which, combined in regular or irregu- 
lar, wise or otherwise order, make up the words of 
our English language. Let company come and we 
were sure to have a spelling match. H. would rather 
go without his dinner than to have any one miss a 
word the first three or four times around. 

After a hasty recitation in grammar, arithmetic, and 
geography, H. would say, " We will now choose sides 
for a spelling match." There came one day, shall I 
ever forget it, when we had company and as usual 
the sides were chosen. Poor Tim always dreaded the 
matches as well as some of the rest of us, but had to 

59 



60 SCHOOL DAYS. 

be chosen, as all were to take part. The spelling be- 
gan with such words as, Thames, Corsica, Sierra 
Madre, phthisic, until H. came to Tim, whom he gave 
bullet. Tim saw the point, and in a not very gracious 
manner mumbled, b-u-1-bul, 1-e-t, let, bullet. The next 
time around, Tim got baker. And as before, b-a-ba, 
k-e-r, ker, baker. The next for Tim was compel. The 
pupils were trying hard to hold in and even some of 
the company were inclined to smile. Tim sang out in 
a loud voice, c-o-m, com, p-e-11, pel, compel, go to 
h — — 1, give me small words, will you ? And away he 
ran out of the door never to return. 

It was naughty in Tim and hard on H., but we 
have always felt it served him right, as he was hu- 
miliating the boy to build up his own reputation. 

H. had this one method for teaching spelling and 
each child whether deaf, dumb or blind must learn to 
spell by this method. Heaven help the children who 
have a " Method " teacher over them. 

" But," said the king, " are pupils all the same, 
Do various minds not various methods claim? 
Pearls are not always found upon the shore. 
And gold is oft extracted from the ore ; 
And he who gems from terra would procure, 
Must not expect to find them bright and pure. 
What different methods, too, the gold assay, 
And diamonds' luster to your gaze display ! 
Thus should the teacher on each different boy 
A different method patiently employ; 
Minds he should know, from various method choose 
That which is proper, and with patience use. 
Then might he see, and hail without surprise, 
The stupid boy becoming learned and wise. 



IN THE FIFTIES. 6l 

Tis they whose 'art with all is just the same' 
More often than their pupils are to ' blame.' , 

Revolve this thought in your pedantic skull : 
' The pupil, through the teacher, oft is dull.' " 

R. W. 

Very few teachers stop to think that the " dull boy " 
may be dull or slow because he is deaf, near-sighted 
or bashful. I recall a mother who one day brought 
her large overgrown boy to school and said to the 
principal, " I have brought my son to you because he 
has not made much progress where he has been. He 
is fifteen years old and only in the sixth grade." 
" What seems to be the trouble? " asked that dear old 
children's friend, Col. Parker, for it was he. " Is he 
hard of hearing? " " Oh, no, he can hear well enough 
only he is hard to learn I guess." At this the principal 
took out his watch and stepping behind the boy, held 
it about 12 inches from the boy's ear asking, " Cart 
you hear my watch tick? " The boy shook his head. 
The watch was then placed near the other ear. " Do 
you hear it now?" Once more the boy shook his 
head. The look on that mother's face! Could it be 
possible? The boy was placed in a room with a 
teacher, Miss G., who knew how to deal with such" 
cases, and who in about a week reported to the princi- 
pal that she had discovered that the boy was also near 
sighted ! Was it any wonder he had not been getting 
along very fast? Was it not more of a wonder that 
he had reached even the sixth grade? The boy re- 
mained in school until he reached the high school. A 
year or so after he had left the school he called to 



62 SCHOOL DAYS. 

see the writer, whom he told how cross his teachers 
had been until he met Miss G. Other things he said 
that were pathetic. How he had made up his mind 
before this that he was too dull ever to learn anything. 
How he had been kept after school for not having 
followed a direction he had never heard. How he had 
almost always sat in a back seat where he had not 
seen much of the work that had been written on the 
blackboard, etc. "How was it possible?" you ask. 
Ten years ago it was not only possible, but very com- 
mon. Not today, however, thanks to the Child Study 
movement that has swept the whole country. 

One day a bright, young teacher went to visit a 
certain school and during the morning the teacher in 
charge pointed out a little girl, " who did the funniest 
things." " What seems to be the trouble with her? " 
asked the visitor. " Oh, I don't know," tapping her 
forehead, " I guess." The visitor passed down to the 
back of the room (these children always take back 
seats if choosing for themselves) and found the little 
thing writing everything inverted. She began talk- 
ing with her and found that she was very bright and 
unusually quick to take a suggestion. , Returning to 
the teacher she said, " That child is bright enough, 
but there is some trouble with her eyes." " Oh, 
pshaw," was the reply, " you don't know her." " Yes 
I do, and if she was my pupil I would see her mother 
at once." So much was said that the teacher did see 
the mother, who took the child to see an oculist, who 
in turn, fitted her eyes with the proper eye glasses, 



IN THE FIFTIES. 63 

and lo ! no one did his work better after that than the 
little " daffy girl ! " 

Oh, teachers, what a calling is yours. Read the 
opinions of some of the greatest school men that have 
ever engaged in your honorable calling : 

From Col. Francis W. Parker, " Selfishness may 
be turned to benevolence, cruelty to love, deceit to 
honesty, sullenness to cheerfulness, conceit to humility, 
and obstinacy to compliance, by the careful leading of 
the child heart to the right emotion. But, in this 
work, the most responsible of all human undertakings, 
we cannot afford to experiment ; there is one indis- 
pensable requirement, — the teacher must knozv the 
child, and its nature." 

" Of all children born," says Rousseau, " only about 
half reach youth ; and it is probable that your pupil 
may never attain to manhood. What, then, must be 
thought of that barbarous education which sacrifices 
the present to an uncertain future, loads the child with 
every description of fetters, and begins, by making him 
wretched, to prepare for him some far-away indefinite 
happiness he may never enjoy ! " 

South says. " He that governs well, leads the blind, 
but he that teaches gives him eyes ; and it is glorious 
to be a sub-worker to grace in freeing it from some 
of the inconveniences of original sin." 

" What considerate man," says Edward Everett, 
" can enter a school and not reflect with awe, that it 
is a seminary where immortal minds are training for 
eternity.' 

" The teacher has the consciousness of being en- 



64 SCHOOL DAYS. 

gaged in a useful and honorable calling. My pen is 
too feeble to attempt to portray the usefulness of the 
faithful teacher " — is the language of David Page. 

" The true teacher of today is not only moulding 
the lives of children who are to become the men and 
women of the immediate future but in doing this he is 
also influencing the intelligence, character and progress 
of generations yet unborn," are the closing words of 
Orcutt. 

Said the late Mr. Fletcher, " The intellectual facul- 
ties can never be exercised thoroughly, but by men of 
sound logical training, — perfect in the art of teach- 
ing." 

Says Charles Northend, " To take the child of today 
in all his ignorance, weakness, exposed to evil influ- 
ences and temptations on every hand, and lead him 
on through the devious and dangerous paths of child- 
hood and youth, and finally place him upon the battle- 
field of life, a true-hearted and intelligent being, richly 
furnished with those traits and qualities which will 
nerve and strengthen him to ' Act well his part in 
life ' — to do all this — is the high privilege and duty 
of the teacher ; and is it not a noble and godlike 
work? " 

The following are the words of the lamented Dr. 
Channing — " There is no office higher than that of a 
teacher of youth, for there is nothing on earth so 
precious as the mind, soul, and character of the child." 



CHAPTER XL 
MARY M. AND HER INFLUENCE. 

Now what of the third teacher we recalled in Chap- 
ter VIII, Mary M. ? Can we ever forget her ? What 
an influence she had over us! What nice ways she 
had. The school was almost like home. When night 
came we longed for morning. What good times we 
had! No sitting up straight then like little sticks, to 
show^ off for company. Why, we even talked once in 
a while! No doubt we gave her a great deal of trou- 
ble at times. No boys could be as full of fun as we 
were and not give the teacher trouble. Notwithstand- 
ing all this we loved her dearly. We learned things, 
too, that we have never forgotten, — things that we 
feel have always been useful. 

Yet, strange to say, ask us to name some of the 
things and we would hesitate, and ask just what they 
were, we answer, "Oh, we feel it. Do you under- 
stand, we feel the good she did. She made us look 
higher, to long to do something. Not by talking to 
us about it. If we were doing anything wrong, her 
eyes would tell us to stop. All she had to do was to 
look at us and we would feel ashamed that we had not 
been doing our duty." How wonderful the power of 
an influence. Let me quote a verse from a poem writ- 
65 



66 SCHOOL DAYS. 

ten by the man whom " Daddy " W. came so near 
sending to States Prison. 

" For good or bad our lives and influence make ; 
Perchance to live and spread when we are dead. 
E'en as the pebbles thrown into the lake 
Will move the waves in widening circle spread, 
Each circle wid'ning, wid'ning till it break 
Upon the margin of its little sea, 
So every influence doth its journey take 
Perchance to break upon Eternity ! " 

There is one point I recall that we all liked but could 
not then perhaps have told just what it was, viz. : 
She knew more of the subject than she had occasion to 
teach. She felt that if she knew no more than she had 
to teach her questions would be narrow in range and 
her explanations meager. Moreover, she knew that by 
being master of the subject she could get at it in a 
variety of ways, reproduce it in more than one, shape 
and see it in more than one aspect. 

She took care that all impressions made on the 
minds of the pupils were morally wholesome. She felt 
that impressions received in the school room go far to 
determine character, and are quite as truly a part of 
education as the direct teaching given there. If a 
child was tardy he was tardy whether he arrived ten 
minutes or one-fourth of one minute late. Nor did 
she ever let a pupil sneak in as if she did not see him. 
Much as she disliked to record a tardy mark every 
one was recorded. We soon learned to know this and, 
hence, ran no risks. 

She lost no time in repeating the answers of the 



IN THE FIFTIES. 67 

pupils. We never heard her say, " What is a verb?" 
" A word that expresses action." " Yes, a word ex- 
pressing action." She knew that the repetitions took 
time and imparted no new information to the pupil. 

She regularly read some standard educational paper 
or magazine; feeling that teaching was a science, one 
of the few in the Fifties, and therefore, like any other 
science demanded study. 

When she saw that the class was becoming tired she 
changed the exercise or recitation. Let us here go a 
little more into detail : 

There were once two bright young teachers, each 
having a class of equally bright young boys and girls. 
It so happened one day, that both of these teachers 
selected " The Famine," from Longfellow's " Hia- 
watha," for a language lesson. The story being a 
pretty one, each thought it would interest the children, 
hold their attention, and after being read, each pupil 
could be asked to reproduce the story in his own words. 
The story was read by both teachers. Both classes 
were attentive from beginning to end. Both teachers ' 
were satisfied. The stories were written by the pupils. 
Those of one class were fairly well told, while those 
of the other class were excellently well told. Why 
this difference? As said before, the classes were 
equally bright. There were excellent reasons, as will 
be shown, for the difference so plainly seen. One 
teacher had applied her pedagogy in a general way, 
while the other had applied hers scientifically. The 
first had chosen the story because she knew it would 
win the attention of her pupils. It certainly did and 



68 SCHOOL DAYS. 

had the other class not been heard from, hers would 
have been called a good exercise. She failed, how- 
ever, as ( i ) She gave her class the exercise imme- 
diately after a long recitation in arithmetic. (2) The 
thermometer registered 78 when she began to read, 
and not one of the windows was open as it was a very 
cold day. (3) She told the pupils before reading they 
were to reproduce the story after she had finished the 
reading. 

The second teacher had also been giving a long and 
difficult lesson in arithmetic just prior to her language 
lesson, but before taking up the language, she had ( 1 ) 
Opened the windows, and had given the pupils a few 
light calisthenics. (2) They sang a few songs. By 
these exercises both the mental and bodily fatigue 
were removed. The teacher well knowing it would 
be idle to try to enlist the close attention of the pupils 
while either their minds or bodies were fatigued. (3) 
She did not begin by telling them that the story was 
to be reproduced, and hence did not divide the atten- 
tion of the children, i. e., while listening they were not 
thinking of their reproduction. (4) Here she made 
her strongest point. This teacher not only told the 
class she had a pretty story to read, but gave them an 
outline of it as follows : " There was once a wonder- 
ful Indian chief. He married a pretty Indian girl. 
We shall see what her name was. It was you will find, 
an appropriate one. She one clay had two strange 
visitors, two we none of us would care to have. Her 
husband one day, went on a long journey. Before he 
returned his beautiful wife died. The Indian's dear- 



IN THE FIFTIES. 69 

est friend was with her when she died. We will see 
how and why this beautiful girl died." 

By this happy application of her professional study, 
she not only secured the children's attention, but she 
had aroused their expectant attention. 

Their minds were able to look onward and antici- 
pate a coming- impression. The consequence was, a 
shortening of the process of reception and recogni- 
tion. The pupils' minds had a continual satisfaction 
of nascent expectation. Laughing Water was recog- 
nized at once by the pupils ; so was Minnehaha ; so 
were Famine, (Bukadawin,) and Fever, (Ahkosewin) ; 
and poor Minnehaha's death by starvation made all the 
stronger impression because of their having been an- 
ticipating the kind of death. The teacher also dis- 
played great tact in taking this indirect method of im- 
pressing upon 'their minds the fact that one's mother 
is his best friend. The class were eagerly waiting to 
ascertain who could have been with the young wife at 
her death. When it proved to be old Nokomis, the 
grandmother of Hiawatha, they were at once willing 
to acknowledge her his best friend, though nothing 
was said. It is not surprising that the reproduction 
of this class was by far the better of the two. 

Miss M. always had the attention of her pupils. 
" How did she get it ? " She knew that attention is 
a voluntary act of the mind. Therefore, she did not 
shout for it; she did not scold to get it; she did not 
demand it. She did what all teachers must do, who 
succeed in securing it. She zvon it. And better yet, 
when she had won it, she did not try to hold it too 



70 SCHOOL DAYS. 

long. So must it always be when teaching young chil- 
dren. 

She was enthusiastic over her work. She distin- 
guished between a demonstrative, and an animated or 
enthusiastic manner. She knew that to be noisy, 
flighty, or fussy was not being animated. Too many 
do not see the distinction. 

She embraced all opportunities for showing sym- 
pathy with her pupils. A teacher may place a barrier 
life-lasting between her and a pupil by saying, " What, 
sick again, dear me, why didn't you stay home then ? " 

She was always early in attendance at school, know- 
ing that, otherwise, she could not enforce her precept 
by example. 

She manifested implicit confidence in her pupils' 
veracity, knowing that to suspect an innocent child of 
falsehood is to wound him almost beyond cure. " Sus- 
picion is the poison to true friendship." 

She instantly checked any laughter when a diffident 
pupil was reciting. Nothing gives a diffident child 
more confidence than to know his rights are to be 
respected. 

Miss M. was not one who would be inclined to say 
to her principal, every time he entered her room, " Mr. 

what would you do with a boy who does so and 

so ? " or " Mr. what do you think of a boy that 

will do so and so? " or perhaps, " Mr. I am glad 

you came in. John, stand up. Would you think a 
boy like that would do so and so ? " 

Miss M. would know that it is hard for a principal 
to do anything at such a time but look foolish. That 



IN THE FIFTIES. Ji 

he will feel more like asking why the boy had been 
permitted to stay in the room at all if he had been 
guilty of doing such things as required a public charge. 
A private talk in the office after, or even during school 
hours will do a boy a thousand times more good. A 
boy soon learns to grow proud of his bad record if 
chastised too often publicly, and when nothing much is 
done to him as must be the case under the above con- 
ditions, (for it was only by chance the principal en- 
tered the room at that time, and had he not entered 
nothing would have been reported to him) the others 
inclined toward misconduct, are encouraged to become 
troublesome. 



" There is a given order in which, and a given rate at which, 
the faculties unfold. If the course of education conforms itself 
to that order and rate, well. If not — if the higher faculties are 
early taxed by presenting an order of knowledge more complex 
and abstract than can be readily assimilated ; or if, by excess of 
culture, the intellect in general is developed to a degree beyond 
that which is natural to the age ; the abnormal result so produced 
will inevitably be accompanied by some equivalent, or more than 
equivalent, evil." 

Herbert Spencer. 



12 



CHAPTER XII. 
PROFESSIONAL READING. 

When reading the autobiography of Col. Parker 
(see appendix) you will find the following: " When 
I went into Boston and could not find a single work on 
pedagogics I was surprised, etc." This was long after 
the old stone school house days, hence you will know 
there was no food for the teachers of those days. 
One of the first that the writer ever saw was written 
by David Page. It was not long after Col. Parker's 
work at Quincy, Mass., however, before the books be- 
gan to be published. Teachers' Reading Classes were 
formed all over the country. The writer has the honor 
of being one of the first to graduate from the New 
Jersey State Teachers' Reading Circle. He is proud 
of it and makes no excuses for mentioning it here. He 
was once asked about that time, " What is a good 
book for a teacher to read," and answered the question 
as follows : " That reminds me of the man who asked 
a doctor what was a good medicine for a patient. The 
doctor told him it all depended on what was the 
matter with the patient. So I answer your question. 
It all depends on what the teacher needs." 

If he is a cool, matter of fact, worldly man, and is 
teaching for the money he can get out of it, with no 

73 



74 SCHOOL DAYS. 

regard for the influence he may have on his pupils, 
thinking his only duty is to put in five hours a day 
hearing lessons, I advise, by all means, that he make 
the Bible his principal book until he becomes aware of 
his awful mistake. 

If he has to contend with trials and tribulations and 
to meet difficulties which he thinks have never fallen 
to the lot of any other man and hence that there is no 
encouragement for him, I advise him to read David 
Page, in whom he will find a kind, faithful, sympa- 
thetic friend, who will instil in him new hope and a de- 
termination to overcome all obstacles ; who will inspire 
him with a love for his profession and cause him to 
lose sight of the almighty dollar, to wait with patience 
till he passes to his final reward which will go with 
him through Eternity. 

If he is one who thinks that children are to be 
treated like automatons to be wound up with the key 
of nonsensical definitions and run down at his will ; or 
if he has the idea that children can learn only when 
stuck up in their several seats like so many wooden 
posts, I advise that he read Pestalozzi's " Leonard and 
Gertrude," where he will find that children can learn 
just as much and be a thousand times happier if al- 
lowed to be what God intended them to be, simply 
little children who can be made to love their teacher, 
their school and their several tasks. 

Is he inclined to be a skeptic and to scoff at the idea 
of teaching's being either an art or science, I advise 
him to read White's " Elements of Pedagogy," in 
which he will find well known and fixed principles in 



IN THE FIFTIES. 75 

teaching which, if he violate, will make his task a 
monotonous routine, that in turn will bring him to a 
premature grave and which will also do an injury to 
his pupils that can never be undone. 

Is he one who stands before his class the personifi- 
cation of an Encyclopedia, airing himself from morn- 
ing till night, day after day, explaining every detail, 
I advise him to read Payne's " Lectures on Eudcation," 
where he will find, I think, to his satisfaction, that he 
is robbing the children of all development of mind. 

Is he one who has been feeding his pupils on dry 
husks for the past ten years, I advise him to read 
Parker's " Talks on Teaching," where he will find 
ear after ear filled with the bright, sparkling, well-de- 
veloped and thoroughly digestible " Col.," which, 
after a few meals, will so change him, that his pupils 
will not recognize him as the old dry cob of a few 
weeks before. 

Is he one who thinks there is no system to the Kin- 
dergarten and that it is only fooling away time, I ad- 
vise him to read Hailman's " Primary Methods and 
Kindergarten Instruction," where he will discover that 
there is a methodical, systematic, economical and 
efficient use of the occupations described therein which 
will successfully guard him against the evils of 
random, unsystematic and too common " busy work." 

Is he one who has not read the history of his pro- 
fession, fearing it would prove dull and uninteresting, 
I advise him to read Quick, Fitch or Compayre's 
"History of Pedagogy," where he will find (if not 
too thoroughly steeped in cheap novels as to be lost 



y6 SCHOOL DAYS. 

to all decent reading), chapter after chapter that will 
hold him spellbound from beginning to end. If un- 
able to read but one of these let it by all means be 
Quick's " Educational Reformers," written by one 
whose whole soul was in the work and who has done 
much to raise the standard of our profession. 

If he be fond of deserts and desire now and then 
a real relish, then I advise that he keep always be- 
fore him " The Report of the Committee of Ten," 
which he will find full to overflowing of good, sound 
common sense that will make him so happy he will 
go through his daily work as light-hearted as a child. 

Is he one who wishes to know how to manage 
children in their early life, i. e., school life, and desires 
good sound psychological common sense for the 
reason given, let him read Currie's " Early Educa- 
tion," a book that is full of thought and wise sugges- 
tions for young teachers; a book that every teacher, 
and especially every primary teacher, should have, 
even though she borrow the money with which to 
buy it. 

Is he one who has no faith in science teaching in 
the common schools and who thinks that it has no 
place in the educating of the young and does he desire 
to have proven to him how utterly wrong are his 
arguments, how absolutely necessary to the child's 
health, his good citizenship, in short to his complete 
being, is this science study, I advise that he read 
Herbert Spencer on Education, where he will find the 
question discussed in a logical, comprehensive, con- 
clusive manner, so much so that I doubt his being able 



IN THE FIFTIES. 77 

to lay down the book till every page has been read. 
Surely he cannot begin the chapter on Moral Educa- 
tion and stop till he has read every word. A chapter 
that should be read by every teacher as often as once 
a term. 

Has he but a limited knowledge of the mind he is 
trying to develop and does he desire to realize how 
much easier, more attractive and scientific he can 
make his work with such knowledge, I advise him to 
read Sulley's " Outlines of Psychology," or " Murray's 
Hand-Book of Psychology," in either of which he will 
learn that there are well known and fixed principles 
which should govern all teaching and teachers in their 
work. The reading of these two books will not only 
make him a better teacher but a better man in every 
respect. 

How the list has grown. Every year adds its new 
ones. No doubt my list will look like a " back 
number " to the young teachers who may read it, but 
I am quite sure that none on the list will harm them 
and the oldest on the list will do them good ! 



Examinations. 

The other night I went to bed, 
But not to sleep, for my poor head 
Was filled with a most awful dread. 

Examinations ! 

I thought of this, and then of that; 
Of set and sit; which goes with sat? 
I fear my brain has run to fat. 

Examinations ! 

Next came the base and rate, per cent, 
Of money to an agent sent, 
And with that word all wisdom went. 
Examinations ! 

Then my lessons I try to spell ; 

Which words have two, and which, one L? 

Oh, my poor brain! I cannot tell. 

Examinations ! 

Where is Cape Cod, and where Pekin? 
Where do the rivers all begin? 
A high per cent. I cannot win. 

Examinations ! 

Who was John Smith? What did he do? 
And all the other fellows, too? 
You must tell me, I can't tell you. 

Examinations ! 

Oh, Welcome sleep! at last it came; 
But not to rest, all the same; 
For in my dreams this was my bane — 
Examinations ! 



78 



CHAPTER XIII. 
EXAMINATIONS. 

We had examinations in the Old Stone School 
House! I do not mean by that exclamation point 
that there is any harm in the written examination 
when " supplementing it with the current work of the 
school, and used in the same spirit, and with equal 
common sense as the oral test," for when thus used, 
" the written test is a most valuable means of school 
training." But at the old school we had them to see 
if we were to " pass " at the end of the term, and oh, 
the lying, copying, cuff-defacing they caused ! If we 
had been given our choice in knowing much and rank- 
ing low in our class, or knowing little and ranking 
high, we would have unhesitatingly chosen the latter. 

These old annual, to decide all, farcical examina- 
tions caused the teachers to become machines for 
cramming, pouring into, and stuffing the minds of 
their pupils with words, words, words, causing them 
to give as much time to the G. C. D. and the L. C. M., 
and that old father of frauds, allegation, because they 
might happen to be in the tests, as they gave to the 
common sense practical principles of arithmetic. 

I once knew a child to con by rote nearly all the 
chronological tables in his history so as to be up in all 
79 



80 SCHOOL DAYS. 

the dates, and it caused him to take a life-lasting dis- 
like for one of the grandest studies in the curricula of 
our public schools. 

Such a system simply impressed upon the minds of 
the pupils that it is not our daily life that is of im- 
portance, but that all is to be summed up at the 
eleventh hour, when it will be determined, regardless 
of our every day life, whether we are to be rewarded 
or punished. Hence many a one of them would spend 
the whole year in acts of pure cussedness, idling away 
his time day after day, using up more of the teacher's 
nerve force than any other half-dozen pupils, and 
finally receive a promotion to a higher grade because 
he sat up nights during the last month learning the 
words of his text book by heart, and on examination 
day gave three-fourths of his answers correctly. 

These examinations were supposed to test the 
teacher's competency also. No matter how faithful 
she may have been, if the class ranked low she was 
held responsible. It might be that any other ten ques- 
tions would not have caught her. That made no dif- 
ference; this ten had caught her. 

There was a young teacher when these term ex- 
aminations were at their height who had been trans- 
ferred from one school to another. In the past every- 
thing had depended on her class average. A few 
weeks before the term examinations began she became 
pale, nervous, and irritable ; her new principal noticing 
this, asked her the cause, when she expressed surprise 
at his having noticed anything unusual in her conduct. 

She then frankly acknowledged that the forth- 



IN THE FIFTIES. 



81 



coming examination was worrying her greatly. She 
said that this being her first examination in this 
school, she was particularly anxious to have a high 
class average. The principal smiled and replied, 
" Should your class happen to have a low average, I 
presume you will have been a failure." " Yes," she 
answered, " I presume I shall have been." Her 
trembling voice and downcast eye spoke louder than 
her words. 

The principal then said, " My dear child, go on with 
your work, and if you do as well in the future as you 
have been doing in the past, I shall be perfectly satis- 
fied with your results, and shall not care whether your 
class average is forty or twice forty per cent. By 
the way, do you know you might have a class average 
of ninety per cent, and be a failure, while on the other 
hand the average might be forty per cent, and you be 
a perfect success? " " Why, no! " she replied, " how 
can that be possible?" "I'll show you," said the 
principal, turning to the class of little second year 
pupils, " Children," said he, " I'm going to teach you 
a new lesson to-day. You may repeat after me, 
' Geography is a description of the earth's surface.' 
1 Say it again.' ' Again.' ' Once more.' ' Now, 
who can tell me?' 'What is geography?' 'Willie 
may tell me.' ' May, tell me.' ' Class, tell me.' 
' Johnny may tell.' 

" There," said he, turning to the teacher, " they 
know that, don't they ? " " Yes, there's no doubt 
they do." " Then, if I were to give them an exami 
nation, and the first question was, ' What is geog- 



82 SCHOOL DAYS. 

raphy ? ' you would admit that it was a fair ques- 
tion?" "Yes, certainly." "Very well. 'Children, 
an island is a body of land surrounded by water.' " 
This was repeated and recited as before. " Now," 
said the principal, " the second question will be fair if 
asked as follows." ' What is an island? ' " Yes, per- 
fectly fair." " And if the children answered as they 
have answered me now, you would give them perfect 
marks? " " I certainly should." " Very well, I shall 
now prove to you that they know absolutely nothing 
about the subject." He then began questioning them 
as to how many had ever seen a geography. Up 
went their hands. When asked about how it looked, 
they answered, " a description of the earth's surface." 
The question was then put, " What is a geography 
itself?" The definition was again repeated. When 
asked how large they thought a geography was, one 
thought it was as large as his fist, another as large as 
the desk, still another thought it was as large as the 
blackboard, when at that moment a little fellow in the 
back part of the room with the most intense earnest- 
ness pictured on his face, raised his hand and ex- 
claimed, "Oh! I know, sir; I know! I know!" 
" Well, my boy, what is it? " " It's a great, big, live 
nanny-goat." 

Reader, that is as true as that you are reading this 
book. The writer was in the room and heard it 
himself. 

There was not a smile upon the boy's face, nor did 
any members of the class laugh, evidently thinking his 
answer was right. The little fellow, no doubt, had at 



IN THE FIFTIES 83 

some time heard that goats were a destruction to the 
earth, hence his error. The exercise closed as fol- 
lows : The principal said, " Now, children, you may 
tell me what is an island? " and they all recited, " An 
island is a body of land surrounded by water." " It 
would bite you, wouldn't it? " he asked, when they all 
exclaimed. "Yes, sir!" 

That teacher afterwards became one of the best in 
that school. 

Think of a child being promoted after such a test, 
with perhaps an average of 75.1 per cent., while the 
conscientious child who works faithfully during the 
year is left behind as he receives but 74.9 per cent. 



" Such men — men deserving the glorious title of Teachers of 
Mankind — I have found, laboring conscientiously, though, per- 
haps, obscurely, in their blessed vocation, wherever I have gone. 
Among the indomitable, active French ; resolute, industrious 
Swiss ; the warm-hearted Germans ; the high-minded, but en- 
slaved Italians ; and in our own country, God be thanked, their 
number everywhere abound, and are every day increasing." 

Henry Brougham (1779). 



H 



CHAPTER XIV. 
LIGHT. 

The time came when we parted from the old stone 
school house. I one day told my father I desired to 
go west. "Why?" he asked. " Because I never 
saw a young man live on his father till he was twenty- 
one who ever became good for anything." I was 
given a ticket and with twenty-five dollars in my 
pocket started to make my fortune. In a little over 
eighteen months I returned to my native village, a 
wiser if not a richer boy, though I have always boasted 
that I returned with more money than I had when I 
left. Money could not buy my experience. A thou- 
sand dollars would be no temptation, and yet I would 
not have my son go through the experience for many 
thousands. 

That experience has helped me much as a teacher, 
in giving good, practical advice to boys who became 
uneasy, and who, tired of school, wished to get to 
work. My talks with them were not based on 
theories, but were given them from facts from " real 
life." 

" Poverty," says Garfield, " is uncomfortable, as I 
can testify, but nine times out of ten the best thing 
that can happen to a young man is to be tossed over- 
85 



86 SCHOOL DAYS. 

board and compelled to sink or swim for himself." 

Shortly after returning from the west, I entered the 
Albany State Normal School (Class '73). It was 
here I came under an influence that changed my whole 
life. How much I owe to the teachers of this school. 
How little I knew at the time what an influence they 
were having over me ! What an ambition I had to be 
somebody in the world ! How I longed to be doing ! 
How differently I looked upon life! There were 
those here for whom I had, when under them, un- 
bounded respect. Not until later years, however, did 
I realize how great was, or rather is, that respect. 

How did these men and women reach us ? I do not 
remember that they ever gave us a lecture on morals. 
There was no sickly precept and moral suasion about 
them. 

When we entered the school we were sent to our 
boarding houses and that ended it so far as we ever' 
knew. There was no hazing here. The freshmen 
were not greeted as " plebes," but were taken by the 
hand and given a glad welcome. 

I shall never forget the day we took our entrance 
examination. Had the " markers " of a few years 
later (not in this school, but throughout the country), 
given the examination I would have received about 
ten points. I was admitted, however, on two months' 
probation and at the end of that time in " due form." 

What a perfect image I have of the room to which 
we went for our geography examination. We were 
told to go to the blackboard and draw any map we 
liked. I drew Massachusetts, and when Miss S. 



IN THE FIFTIES. *V 

passed around the room to look them over she stopped 
at mine and asked, " Who drew this ? " I, thinking 
it must be very good to have such notice taken of it, 
raised my hand high in the air. " Yes," 'said she, " it 
looks like an enraged elephant." This in such a way 
as not to anger, but to bring a laugh, in which I joined 
with the others. 

We hear of " born short " pupils now days. If 
there had been a class of born short in arithmetic in 
those days I'm sure I would have been at the head of 
it! I was conditioned in algebra in 1872, and in 1895 
I sent a little algebra to my old teacher with a note, 

saying, " To Prof. , in memory of the condition 

of 1872, with the compliments of the author." In 
about six weeks I received a letter saying, " I have 
looked the little book over carefully and have come 
to the conclusion that the condition was a mistake ! " 

But as to these born short are there so many of 
them after all? Is it not possible that now and then, 
not always, but now and then that the teacher is the 
one who is short? Whenever I feel that I have a 
born short I ask myself, " Have you looked into this 
pupil's past? Do you know his past teachers? Have 
you seen them teach the subject he is short in? Then 
to give me new courage I do what I am going to ask 
you to do and that is to read the report of Prof. James 
R. Richard, Chapter XVII, read by him at the 
Twelfth Annual Session of the Conference of Char- 
ities and Correction, held in Washington, D. C, June 
9, 1885, as to how he treated the boy, Sylvanus. 
Then ask yourself, " Dare I, who have all the senses 



88 SCHOOL DAYS. 

with which to work, admit there is a child under my 
charge whose mind I cannot reach ? " 

Opportunity. 

" Master of human destinies am I. 
Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait, 
Cities and fields I walk ; I penetrate 
Deserts and seas remote, and, passing by 
Hovel, and mart, and palace, soon or late 
I knock unbidden once at every gate! 
If sleeping, wake — if feasting, rise before 
I turn away. It is the hour of fate, 
And they who follow me reach every state 
Mortals desire, and conquer every foe 
Save death ; but those who doubt or hesitate, 
Condemned to failure, penury, and woe, 
Seek me in vain and uselessly implore.. 
I answer not, and I return no more." 

John J. Ingalls. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE WILL. 

The will is the mind willing. It is the self-active, 
self-determining power of the soul. An act of will 
involves a choice between alternate acts. How im- 
portant for a teacher to know these truths when he 
stops to think with White, that " It is possible, by the 
non-exercise of certain feelings, and the constant exer- 
cise of others, to create in man, in a certain sense, a 
new nature — to substitute for passions and lusts, that 
degrade the soul, those affections and desires that 
exalt and make beautiful the life." Teachers should 
not forget, however, that the soul may be filled to 
overflowing with emotions of pity and compassion; 
the heart may be ready to burst in sympathy for the 
sufferings of another, and yet if the feelings do not 
pass into a purpose, or out into an act of kindness, 
they will develop character but very little, if at all. 

The above truth was thoroughly understood by that 
noble-minded teacher who, when she heard of an old 
lady who had recently lost her husband and whose 
only son had a few days later been brought home in 
a dying condition for his mother to care for, took 
occasion to tell her pupils of the sad case. The chil- 
dren listened attentively while their teacher described 



90 SCHOOL DAYS. 

the old lady's home in which were found none of the 
luxuries of this world, and but few of the necessities. 
Long before the teacher had finished the story many 
of the children were in tears. Now was the all im- 
portant moment. So far the exercise had been a 
success; the teacher had displayed her power of 
description ; the elocution had been faultless ; she had 
moved the whole class. This, however, was not her 
purpose; she well knew the real test was yet to come. 
" How many would like to help this clear old lady ? " 
was asked. Every one would, even little Johnny, 
whose fiery temper and cross, selfish nature had been 
a source of great anxiety to his teacher, was ready 
with the others. O, how the teacher's heart throbbed 
as she noticed this ! She well knew that her work 
with Johnny was all " the powers that be " would ask 
for. Johnny was the brightest boy in the class, as far 
as his book-knowledge was concerned, yet this teacher 
felt that the public schools were not intended to teach 
the Young Americans a few facts from books. She 
felt that the millions of dollars annually expended 
were worse than wasted, if the children left the school 
with no character back of their book knowledge. She 
felt that it was not only her duty to teach a child how 
to read but what to read. Not only was she to teach 
him how to write but what to write ; yes, and what not 
to write, too. She knew that there were schools 
which have turned out into the world pupils for whom 
and for whose country it would have been better had 
they received no education ; for that which they had 
received had only helped them to practice their dis- 



IN THE FIFTIES. 91 

honest tendencies all the more successfully; tendencies 
which by proper training might have been checked. 

Here was Johnny, the selfish, then, raising his hand 
with the others. " How shall we help the old lady, 
Johnny?" is asked. Johnny says he will ask his 
father to give him some money to bring to the teacher 
for the old lady. The children were all ready to do 
this. "But," said the teacher, "I do not like this 
plan very well; I want you to do something your- 
selves. Ah, I have a plan. When you go home to 
dinner, notice what there is on the table that you 
desire the most, and then do not eat it. It will re- 
quire more or less will power for you to resist. When 
you come back to school, you may each tell me what 
you denied yourself, and I will put a price on it, and 
to-morrow morning you may bring me the amount I 
name. " 

In the afternoon the first few minutes were taken 
to determine how much money had been raised. One 
child had eaten no butter; another no meat, and an- 
other no potatoes. Last of all came Johnny. The 
teacher had hardly dared ask him. When asked, he 
brought a note to the teacher's desk. It was from his 
mother, and stated that for a week Johnny had been 
teasing her to make a custard pie for dinner. She 
had made one that day, and not a mouthful would 
Johnny take. He had tried to explain, but she could 
not understand. What did it mean ? The class were 
told the contents of the note, and it was unanimously 
agreed that Johnnie's pie should be marked the 
highest of all. The next day the teacher was de- 



92 SCHOOL DAYS. 

lighted to see Johnny sharing an apple with one of his 
less fortunate class-mates. And on the next day after 
she learned he had given half of his marbles to a little 
fellow who had none. Who knows but that this 
teacher had made a Peter Cooper, or a George Peabody 
of Johnny ? And yet all the examinations ever given, 
by all the boards of examiners that ever existed, would 
not have discovered the competency of this noble 
woman. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
A CHAPTER FROM REAL LIFE. 

The year's work is done. The annual examina- 
tions are finished. We sent a large class to take the 
test. We have been congratulated on our success. 
Many, yes, nearly all of our class have passed. A 
good showing, says the public at large. 

Are we happy? Alas! no. Johnny has been left 
behind. Johnny was under our charge for four years. 
O, how he tried us ! Time after time we were tempted 
to suspend him from school. Still, we held on to him 
year after year. Some of our friends thought us too 
patient. Others said we " lacked back-bone," while 
others who knew us and understood us said, " There is 
a limit to all things and you have done your duty." 
Still, we held on to Johnny. Even some of his class- 
mates thought we were letting Johnny go too far. 
Yet, we did not give him up. 

A few weeks before the annual examinations, how- 
ever, the last straw breaks the camel's back. We sent 
for the father and asked him to take Johnny from 
school. " We have no influence over him," we say, 
" Nothing we have ever done or said has moved him, 
and now we feel that for the good of the school he 
must go." 

93 



94 SCHOOL DAYS. 

The father, with tears in his eyes, agrees with us, 
thanks us for all our care and patience, and we feel 
while he is talking that we have been quite a hero. 
Johnny goes, and when he has gone, we do not feel 
so much like a hero as we did. We feel that we are a 
poor, weak, impatient good-for-nothing man, and long 
to get out of teaching and go into something for 
which we are fitted. 

The year has gone. Its work is done. Johnny 
has not graduated with the rest and we feel, notwith- 
standing the congratulations of the public, the year's 
work has been a failure. 

Weeks, yes, months, have passed since Johnny has 
left us. To-day there was a ring at the door-bell. 
" Some one wishes to see you," says the little monitor. 
We go to the reception room, where we find an old 
friend. We shake hands and are glad to see each 
other. Onr friend asks after our health, how our 
class is doing, what kind of a class it is. Then he 
tells us of himself, where he has been, what he is and 
has been doing, thanks us for something we once did 
for him, tells us that though he did not show any ap- 
preciation at the time, his heart was softer than we 
thought; says he has just joined the church and is 
taking up some of his old studies at home. 

We grasp his hand and say, " Ah, Johnny, (yes, 'tis 
he) we always said you would come out all right; we 
are so glad you came to see us; come again often." 
He says he will; he does not go yet, and seeing he 
has something still to say we encourage him to say it. 
At last he says, " There is one thing I do not yet 



IN THE FIFTIES. 95 

understand." "What is that, Johnny?" we ask. 
" Why did you sometimes tell me before the class that 
you thought I would come out all right? I can see 
why you did so sometimes in private, but do not see 
why you did in public." " My dear boy," we say, 
" we did it because we try to do our work for all time 
and not for the time being only. In your old class of 
forty boys and girls some, perhaps many, may become 
teachers. They may have a Johnny in their class; 
they will then remember you and us, and will remem- 
ber our words, and when they see you, or hear of your 
becoming a good man, they will have more patience 
with their Johnny and will be thankful to you and to 
us for our lesson of patience to them." 

How happy we feel to-night! How thankful we 
are to our kind Heavenly Father because He has given 
us a little view of our harvest! O, teachers, what a 
grand noble work is ours! We are too apt to look 
for immediate results, and think, if we see or hear of 
no improvement in our pupils while they are with us 
that none has been made. Those teachers who did 
the most for me never knew how much they were 
doing. If I can do as much for any of my pupils as 
some of my teachers did for me I shall feel that God 
has let me do some good in the world and that it is 
a little better for my having been in it. 

Pardon one more reminiscence. Fred, Fred, what 
a boy was Fred ! How often we came nearly giving 
him up. Once his teacher, a grand good woman, said 
to us, "Either he goes or I do, which shall it be?" 



96 school days. 

" Fred," said I one day, " how is it you cannot get 
along better?" "Oh," said he, "I get ugly, then 

Miss corrects me and then I get mad, so of 

course she gets mad, and the next thing is the office." 
I could not but feel that a fellow who talked like that 
must have some good in him and so I would talk with 
him and (let me say here, with no thought of ad- 
vancing an argument for or against corporal punish- 
ment, I cannot but feel that the fact that / had the 
power to whip him but would not had a much better 
influence over him than would the fact that I would 
but could not) he talked back with such good hard sense 
that I would beg the teacher to give him another trial. 
He was a queer boy to deal with, but we held on to 
him and at last sent him to the high school and I came 
west. In something like four years I returned on a 
visit. One day, when walking down one of the prin- 
cipal streets, I felt some one tapping me on the back 
and turning I saw a six-footer looking down at me. 
He had on a broad grin and said, " You don't know 
me, do you?" "No," said I, "I must say I do — 
w-h-a-t ? Is that you, Fred ? " " Yes, it is I." 
"How are you, old boy, and what are you doing?" 
" Oh, I am well and you can't guess what I am doing." 
" No, I give it up at once, so tell me." " Well, sir, I 
am down at R college preparing for the ministry ! 



CHAPTER XVII. 
SYLVANUS. 

By Professor James R. Richards. 

How are we to reach these unfortunate innocents? 
Can they be taught by the ordinary methods? What 
is the difficulty? 

These questions can, perhaps, best be answered by 
drawing a comparison between the normal and the 
abnormal child, laying down some general principles, 
and illustrating the methods of teaching by giving one 
or two cases which have come under my own ob- 
servation. 

The normal child has all his senses acute, keen, on 
the alert. He recognizes the mother's voice, sees any 
bright object near him, grasps firmly the finger placed 
in his hand. The senses of the abnormal child are all 
dormant, sluggish, perhaps morbid. A film seems to 
be over his eyes ; to the mother's voice, he never re- 
sponds ; his limbs are useless ; he is also deficient in 
will power. I was once asked by the late Dr. Bellows, 
of New York, What constitutes an imbecile? The 
imbecile child is one who has the fewest wants. Per- 
haps his only want is to be made comfortable, that is 
all ; but, from that one simple want, we shall climb, 

97 



98 SYLVANUS. 

step by step, the ladder of wants, and so ascend in 
part the scale of all human development. 

One of the most trying cases that I ever had to deal 
with was in my early experience. It was a boy about 
eight and a half years old. He had never known his 
mother, so she told me. She had never seen a smile 
upon his face. His father had tried to send a light 
from some shining object into his eyes, but he never 
blinked but once. He had not the power of locomo- 
tion ; his lower limbs were paralyzed. Not even the 
sense of pain or the sense of touch did he have. This 
boy I found dressed in a red flannel gown, lying upon 
the floor. He could not even roll over; he could do 
nothing. There are a great many others as bad as 
he, but let us see what we did with him. 

I took the boy with me with the greatest care to the 
institution, and dealt with him as with a babe. He 
was held in arms, fed, rubbed, manipulated, worked 
upon to see if we could arouse the energy of his body. 
He was properly bathed and exercised, and everything 
possible done to develop him. After a month's care- 
ful study of his case, I made up my mind that I must 
get down to him. Where did I get my lesson? I 
observed one day how a mother, a bright, intelligent 
woman, managed a child. She was upon the second 
floor and her boy, who was on the lower floor, dis- 
obeyed her. She did not scream to him from the top 
of the second flight of stairs, saying, " Jack, you must 
not do that." She came down stairs, both flights, 
and getting right down to him, on the same level with 
with him, eye to eye, she said, " My dear boy, don't 



SYLVANUS. 99 

you know that that is wrong? " The boy melted and 
threw his arms around his mother's neck. That is 
where I got my lesson. Get upon the floor, — get 
down where the child is, right down there. If he 
knows anything, it is down there. You must take 
hold of the slightest thing in your favor. Day after 
day, for an hour at a time, for three months, I took a 
book and read aloud to that boy, — intelligently, as if 
he understood every word I said, adapting the intona- 
tions as if I were reading to an intelligent person. 
When mothers talk to their little babes, telling them 
little "goo-goo" stories, what is the effect? The 
bright child wakes up by and by to this pleasant voice 
in the ear. And so it might be with this unfortunate 
boy here. And so it was. He finally heard this 
voice that was ringing around him in a musical tone, 
month after month, and one day, when I came and 
simply sat in a chair and read to myself, I looked one 
side to see if he missed me, and the child actually 
appeared uneasy. .Imagining that he missed me, I 
lay down on the floor beside him as usual, saying, 
"Oh, you want me, Sylvanus? Well, I am here." 
He breathed a soft " Ah ! " I had planted the first want. 
He wanted me, and he wanted me there. He had felt my 
influence there; I was too far off in the chair. So I 
read to him two or three months more. Then, in- 
stead of reading aloud, I read to myself one day. 
After a long time, I saw he was trying to do some- 
thing. I watched him. Gradually he lifted his finger 
and laid it on my lips. " Oh, you want me to read to 
you, do you?" And so I read. Another want had 



IOO SYLVANUS. 

been implanted. I read to him every day, letting him 
always have the privilege of opening my lips. At 
last he smiled, — the first smile of recognition that 
ever came upon that unfortunate child's features. It 
was enough to pay me ten thousand times over for all 
I had done. " If we can redeem one," I said to Dr. 
Howe, " we will redeem them all over the country. 
We will open the door so wide that every State shall 
pass an act to found an institution for these unfortu- 
nates, and every intelligent being shall feel that it is a 
privilege to enter into this great work." 

This boy, step by step, went on. Finally I could 
take him up and have him where I pleased. He was 
near me — we were one. He felt it and knew it. 
He was glad to be taken up. This training went on 
and until one day I found he could move his limbs. 
I put him on his hands and knees to teach him to 
creep. This was nearly a year and a half after he 
came into the institution. As I placed him there, I 
said, " I wonder if I can help him to talk." He had 
not talked any. I said to him, " Now, move this 
hand; that is right. Now the other; that is a good 
boy," guiding them as I spoke. I did this every 
day for months, till finally I found he was trying to 
do it himself between the drills. After a while I 
thought I saw his lips moving as he did it. Putting 
down my ear very close I found he was talking. He 
was whispering to himself: " Move this" hand, that is 
right. Now the other; that is a good boy. Now, 
move this leg; that is right. Now the other; that is 



SYLVANUS. IOI 

a good boy." He had heard me talk in such a way, 
and it aroused him to talk. 

We went on. Object lessons came in. He must 
go down to the shoemaker's every day to see the 
shoemaker make him a pair of shoes. " What are 
those, Sylvanus ? " we would ask ; and he would say, 
"Shoes." "Who made them?" "Shoemaker."' 
" What is this ? " "Bread." "Who made it?" 
" Betsy" (the girl). And so the object lessons had a 
connection in his mind. One day I showed him an 
apple. " What is that? " " Apple." He had picked 
them up on the ground. " Who made it." " Don't 
know." " Didn't the shoemaker ? " "No." "Didn't 
Betsy?" "No." It was time to give him another 
lesson. 

I took him up stairs one morning to an east window, 
to see the sun rise. " What is that, Sylvanus ? Say 
sun." "Sun," he repeated. " Who made it, Sylvanus? 
Say God." " God," he repeated. I left him there 
and went down stairs. When breakfast was ready I 
sent the nurse for him. When I came to the school- 
room there was this little boy. He had crept up to the 
window, and was talking to another boy. " What is 
that, Charlie? Say sun, Charlie. Who made it? Say 
God, Charlie," calling up one child after another, and 
going through his brief lesson. " What is that? Say 
sun. Who made it? Say God." He was the best 
teacher I ever had. 

That is the way. You must take the clew before 
you, and not always thrust yourself in. Some days 
after in my object lessons, I took up the apple. 



102 SYLVANUS. 

" Who made it? " I asked of the children. All were 
silent but Sylvanus. He looked as if he had a 
thought. "What do you think, Sylvanus?" 1 asked. 
" God," was the reply. He had made the connection. 
Remember, this was the little child when eight and a 
half years old, lay upon the floor and could not recog- 
nize a thing about him. 

One day Sylvanus saw a mother come in and take 
up another child and try a jacket on him. Sylvanus 
looked up in my face and asked, " Have I a mother? " 
He wanted a mother. Yes, we all want mothers; and 
this little boy wanted one, too. I told him that he 
had a mother. He said that he wanted to see her. 
So she came one day, and when she came into the 
room, she looked all around, and said, " Where is 
Sylvanus?" When he heard his name he answered, 
" Here I am ; is that my mother ? O, mother, I am so 
glad to see you ! " Joy upon the return of one among 
the angels ? Here was one redeemed. 

Yes, and let me add, my dear Mr. Richards, Through 
patience, perseverance and love. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE TEACHERS' ALPHABET. 

A teacher who has forgotten how he felt as a child 
lacks an essential for a good disciplinarian. 

Because a child is sloiv we must not count him dull. 
Slow boys and girls have made quick men and women. 

Children soon learn to wait for the " thunder clap." 
Never, then, begin by trying to startle a class into at- 
tention. Attention thus gained is not healthy. 

Do not make tug-boats of yourselves, to pull your 
pupils through the waves. Act as the rudder, to guide 
them. If patient the storm will soon pass. 

Every teacher who succeeds in awakening a desire 
for better things in a young scapegrace, deserves more 
praise than a thousand " hearers of lessons." 

Faith, love, courage, patience, sympathy, self-con- 
trol, enthusiasm and common sense, are the avenues 
that lead to the children's hearts. 

Good, hard-working, conscientious, progressive, en- 
thusiastic teachers must never hope to receive their full 
reward in this world. 

Hundreds of teachers ( ?) go to their class-rooms 
every day, who are as unfit for their work as a snail 
for rapid transit. 

It is much easier to teach by rote than to train and 
103 



104 TEACHERS' ALPHABET. 

develop the mind. For this reason many cry down 
the new methods and cling to the old. 

Just as well to practice medicine with no knowledge 
of physiology, as to teach with no knowledge of the 
child one is teaching. 

Know as much of the home life of your pupils as 
possible. It will often help you to get hold of the 
bad boy to know his bad father. 

Let every child have access to the school library. 
Lending the books to only those who obtain high rank 
is bad. Often the ones who need the books most 
never get them. 

Many children who are full of animation, life, fun, 
and happiness, are made to hate school and books be- 
cause their teachers do not take the time or trouble to 
study their dispositions. 

Never get out of patience with a slow pupil if you 
desire to keep him patient. Never laugh at him unless 
you desire to wound his feelings. 

Opportunities are often given teachers which they 
fail to see. Heaven lead us all to feel thy power, Op- 
portunity, and teach us how to rightly use it. 

Professional teaching can only be done by profes- 
sional teachers. Professional teachers are those who 
take time to prepare themselves for the work. 

Question, then name the pupil who is to recite; all 
will then give attention, not knowing who may be 
called to answer the question. 

Read of Laura Bridgman, Helen Keller, or the boy 
Sylvanus, and tell me if we, who have the five senses 
with which to work, dare assert there is a child in 



TEACHERS' ALPHABET. 105 

our charge whose understanding we cannot reach. 

Some of your brightest pupils may become useless 
members of society unless you teach them how to ap- 
ply what they learn. (I once saw a pig pass a good 
examination in reading.) 

There should be almost as many methods as there 
are pupils. " Tis they who with all are just the same, 
more often than their pupils are to blame." 

Unless a child is taught to govern himself in the 
school-house and school-yard, pray, where is he to be 
taught? His employer cannot be expected to hire 
some one to watch that he does his duty. 

Very few teachers stop to think that the " dull boy " 
is only slow because he is deaf or near-sighted. Test 
any cases you may have to see if this is not true. 

What credit is due a teacher who graduates a 
bright, intelligent boy with a high standing ? Scarcely 
any. Such a child will learn if shut up in a room by 
himself. 

Xenophon, when a young man, had charge of an 
army of ten thousand men. He owed his success to 
his faithful, patient teacher, Socrates. 

Young teachers are apt to look for immediate re- 
sults and think if they see or hear of no improvement 
in their pupils that none has been made. Your in- 
fluence is life-long; let it be for good. 

Zeal, rightly applied by a teacher in her class-room 
work, is a better disciplinarian than a thousand rattans 
in the hands of as many " living " automatons. The 
teacher who deserves credit is he who awakens the 
sleepy mind ; he who reaches that which others have 
failed to reach. 



APPENDIX 

Containing an Autobiographical Sketch 

OF 

FRANCIS WAYLAND PARKER 



107 



APPENDIX. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Not long after receiving his appointment as Vice- 
Principal of the Cook County Normal School (1889), 
the writer one day asked Colonel Parker what data, if 
any, there were on file that could be used by one desir- 
ing to write a sketch of his life. He knew of none. 
He was then asked if he would be willing to give 
sittings if a stenographer was engaged to take down 
what he might dictate. After thinking it over he said 
he would give such sittings. A stenographer was en- 
gaged by the writer, and he can see the Colonel now 
as he sat in his reclining chair, with his head thrown 
back, his eyes closed, his right hand twisting the end 
of his mustache, and as he talked his face now and 
then reflecting a smile, when he recalled some past 
event. Those were busy days at the old school, and 
it is to be regretted that but one sitting was ever had. 
What was taken at that time is here given. Now and 
then the Colonel was unable at the moment to recall 
a proper name of some person or place. Such places 
the reader will understand have been filled in with 
stars. They might have been looked up and supplied 
by the writer, but it was thought best to leave the 
record just as it fell from the Colonel's lips. Meager 
109 



IIO APPENDIX. 

as is the sketch, it will be read with pleasure by all 
who knew him and with interest by all others. 

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OF 

FRANCIS WAYLAND PARKER 

My ancestor on my father's side was Rev. Thomas 
Parker, who came over from England to Newbury- 
port, Mass. He was a Presbyterian minister, and the 
record says he was a little liberal, and they turned him 
out at Newburyport. My grandfather, William Par- 
ker, was the founder of the village called Piscatauquog, 
in the old Scotch-Irish town of Bedford, N. H. He 
made boots to pay for his first acre of land. My 
mother's name was Rand. My great-grandfather on 
that side was a classmate of John Hancock, and once 
the librarian of Harvard University. Another of my 
ancestors was Col. John Goffe, a noted Indian fighter 
of those days. He was supposed to be of the same 
family as Goffe the regicide. One prominent feature 
of my ancestry is the number of ministers, as many 
as five strains of ministers, the Stiles, . . . Rand, 
Goffe and Parker. I had three ancestors who fought 
at the battle of Bunker Hill, and three of my ancestors 
lie buried at Copps Hill burying ground in Boston. 

My grandfather Rand was the first school teacher 
recorded in the old town of Derryfield, now Man- 
chester, N. H. My mother was a teacher, and it was 
said of her that she never taught as anyone else did, 



APPENDIX. Ill 

that she had ways of her own. My father, Robert 
Parker, was partially deaf, he was a cabinet maker, 
and noted all the country round for the good work 
he did at his trade. I was born in the village of Pis- 
catauquog, Town of Bedford, N. H., October 9, 1837. 
My father was poor, from the fact that he was sickly, 
he was never a well man, he died at the age of forty- 
seven years. 

The first thing I can remember in my early child- 
hood is when at three years of age I climbed up to the 
window to look out of the little log house and see a" 
procession go by. It was an original Harrison pro- 
cession, in 1840. I cannot remember when I learned 
my letters, nor when I learned to read, but I knew my 
letters before I went to school. I can remember very 
well the first time I went to school. I carried a 
Leonard spelling book in my hand, and was led by my 
two sisters, each one holding a hand. I dropped my 
book at every few steps, and my sisters would pick it 
up and hand it to me. I went to the village school, 
one of the old fashioned variety of schools, in Pisca- 
tauquog. I went there until I was seven years old. 
Then they had an academy established there, as the 
village school was too full, and all the boys over ten 
years of age were drafted out of this school and put 
in the Academy, and as I thought I knew a great deal 
more than some of those boys, and as my uncle was 
on the School Committee, I cried my way into the 
Academy. I put my head down on the desk and 
bawled until they allowed me to go. So I went to 
the Academy at seven years of age. My father 



112 APPENDIX. 

died when I was six years old — in 1843. I had 
$200, and that was all the money I had for my 
life. My uncle, James Walker, proposed to put me 
out on a farm, to bind me out until I was twenty-one 
years of age, and so I was bound out to a man by the 
name of Moore. It was in the middle of winter when 
I was sent out to the little rocky farm in Goffstown, 
N. H., where I was to stay until I was twenty-one. I 
was a little fat, squabble of a fellow. When I went 
there I read in the Rhetorical Reader, had been 
through . . . Arithmetic, and had just gone into 
the Written Arithmetic. I studied the large geog- 
raphy, Roswell & Smith's Geography. I stayed 
on the farm for five years, in the meantime going 
to school something like eight weeks in the winter. 
I was not allowed to go in the summer be- 
cause my services were needed on the farm, riding 
the horses to plough. The schools were very poor in- 
deed, and I do not know as I learned anything in them, 
but I can well remember now as I look back upon it, 
how the old farm attracted my attention and was a 
great means of educating me. I did not understand it 
then, but now I see how I loved everything in nature, 
and how I observed everything around me. I remem- 
ber one great thing that attracted my attention was 
the change in the season. I went there in the winter, 
and I observed the changing of the trees from their 
winter bareness to the spring glory, and of one especial 
orchard that I could see out of my little garret win- 
dow. I slept up in a little bit of a garret, so low that 
I could touch the rafters with my hands, and could 



APPENDIX. 113 

hear the rain pattering on the roof as I lay in bed. I 
always loved to hear the rain, because I knew on that 
day I would not have to work, and could go a-fishing 
in the Piscatauquog River. I watched these trees in 
the orchard with their shining bark, and by and by the 
buds bursting out, and the change, until it was one 
great snowbank of beautiful apple-blossoms, and I 
thought I must tell all about what I had seen. I had 
not learned to write very much, but I got an old 
stump of a pencil, and an old piece of brown paper, 
and sat clown at my desk, for I had my father's desk 
with me, and wrote an account of this wonderful 
change, this marvelous change in the orchard. I 
wrote down all I could think of about the dead tree 
and the shining bark and then the bud and blossom, 
and then I prognosticated about the fruit. I put my 
whole heart into the composition, and then I felt that 
I must show it to somebody, and I carried it down to 
the lady where I lived who had taught school for 
about six months. She looked at it, read it, and then 
handed it back to me with a very scornful look on her 
face, and with the remark that if she could not write 
better than that she would not try to write. 

I never afterward in my life, except when I was in 
the Academy, could be compelled to write a composi- 
tion, and I lay it to that influence. I used to study in 
a spontaneous way everything in nature. I knew 
every tree on the farm, and the grasses and flowers 
and berries. That was my Botany. And now when I 
go anywhere, in any part of the world that I have 
ever visited, I always, when I see a new plant, say to 



114 APPENDIX. 

myself, " That was not on the old farm," and when 
I see another I say, " That was on the old farm." I 
also knew all the animals. I studied them in a spon- 
taneous way, all the butterflies and insects and animals, 
and I also studied what little Mineralogy there was. 
I learned about the rocks by loading them on the cart 
and building them into a stone wall. I studied Physics 
in the work I did in logging in the woods, and in 
ploughing, but when I went to school no one ever told 
me that that work I did on the farm was of any 
worth in my education, and I never dreamed it until I 
had taught school twenty years. Now I know it was 
the beginning of what little education 1 have, and the 
best in the world. If any teacher had told me in 
school that that was real true education that I was 
getting on the farm, and that the work I did was the 
best I could have, how it would have lit up the whole 
farm in a blaze of glory for me, because I had a 
strong desire to get an education ; I believe most boys 
then in New England did have. I believed that an 
education was the one thing I must get or die in the 
attempt, and I never lost a day in school, or an hour, 
when I could get it. The teachers I had, one in par- 
ticular, were the old hedgehog variety, who worked 
on the farm in the summer and taught school in the 
winter. This one chewed, tobacco and spit all around 
on the floor, and I hated him with a just and righteous 
hatred. He did not teach school in the way that I had 
been used to, or the way that I thought he ought, and 
according to my idea he was not doing just right, and 
I said to him one day in school, " Mr. Major, you are 



APPENDIX. 115 

not doing right; you don't teach as they do down in 
Squog." 

The first summer I was on the farm I begged to go 
to school, and although they thought I ought to stay at 
home and ride the horse to plough, they sent me off for 
a day or two, for I cried and said I wanted to 
go, and as I was a little fellow they let me go; so 
I started off to school with my books under my arms 
consisting of Smith's Arithmetic, the Rhetorical 
Reader, the large Geography, Roswell & Smith's 
Geography, and carried them to school. I was a small 
boy and the teacher came to me and asked me in what 
class I belonged, to which I replied very quietly and 
firmly that I was in the first class. As it happened 
there was a little different arrangement in this school 
from the one in Piscatauquog, the first class was the 
lowest instead of the highest. So the teacher waited 
until she called out the A. B. C. class, consisting of 
some large boys, one a colored boy, and then little 
Miss Mullet walked up to me and said, " Little boy, 
come out and say your letters." I have been very 
much chagrined at different times in my life, but prob- 
ably that was the deepest chagrin I ever knew. I put 
my head down on the desk and wept sore. A boy 
sitting beside me said, " He does not belong in 
that class, he has an Arithmetic and a Geography," 
and he pulled out my books and put them on the 
table. But I could not get over it. and would not go 
back to school. I took the advice of the man for 
whom I worked and stayed at home. I can say that 
the boys at school were very rough. But I was used 



Il6 APPENDIX. 

to it. In the village where I went to school they were 
very rough. The boys in the country school proposed 
to whip me, and I had no peace afterward until I 
whipped every one of them except a large boy fifteen 
years old, who was a sort of friend of mine. 

I think I can say that I loved to work. I never 
shirked my work. One favorite occupation of mine 
was sawing wood. We used to draw up eight-foot 
long sticks under an old butternut tree, " oilnut tree" 
we called it, and then cut it into four-foot sticks, and 
then I sawed it up in the spring into wood for the 
year's fire. I liked the sawing very much, — because 
I could work and think. I had a great many dreams 
under that old oilnut tree, and I read, by the way, 
everything that I could get my hands on. In a little 
cupboard in the house there were almanacs dating 
back to 1794, and I read all these, every one of them, 
jokes and all, right through. I read the Bible through 
several times, generally getting a reward for it. I 
read everything I could find. " Bunyan's Pilgrim's 
Progress " I used to read through about once a month. 
I got hold of Wayland's " Life of Judson." By the 
way, I was named for Francis Wayland, the great 
educator, and as I said I read " Wayland's Life of 
Judson," and read it with great pleasure. It had quite 
an effect on me. One favorite dream I had while 
sawing wood was to dream out what I would be in 
life. I would follow out a certain line of life. I 
would be a statesman, and I would follow a statesman 
through what I knew of statesmanship, until I got to 
be President of the United States and head of all 



APPENDIX. 117 

affairs, and then I would stop and say, " Well, and 
what then? " Then I would go back and begin again 
on another line. I would be a warrior, and I would 
go on until I commanded all the warriors and was at 
the top, and then I would say to myself, " And what 
then?" And so I went through all the various lines 
of greatness, and success, and fame, but every time I 
would come out at "and what then?" and I think I 
then made up my mind to be a school teacher. I did 
not see any fame in it, or honor, but I think I made 
up my mind then, in fact I cannot remember the time 
when I had not made up my mind to be a school 
teacher. 

I have been often asked what I considered the best 
thing in my education, and I have named two things 
— the five years on the farm, and the four years in the 
army. The five years on the farm gave me my love 
for study, and the work gave me my physical strength, 
and the army gave me some measure of self-control, 
not very much, by the way, but enough to steady me. 

At thirteen years of age I was very much dissatis- 
fied. Though I loved to work, still I felt that I must 
have an education. As I said before, I only had eight 
weeks schooling in the year, and I was extremely anx- 
ious to become educated. I had very few with whom 
I could consult. My mother lived in the old house at 
Piscatauqoug, but she thought that perhaps I had 
better do as my guardian said and stay on the farm. 
But the man for whom I worked, Mr. Moore, thought 
I was so very much dissatisfied that I had better go 
and see my guardian, Mr. Walker, and talk with him 



Il8 APPENDIX. 

about the matter. So one day I walked five and one- 
half miles to see him. I met him at the gate of his 
domicile and told him my desires, and then he very 
earnestly and savagely told me that I was a lazy brat 
and did not want to work, and that that was the rea- 
son I wanted to go to school, and that the one thing 
for me to do was to walk back to the farm and go to 
work. I remember that I made up my mind then and 
there that I would have an education, or die for it. 
And so I went off without his consent to Mt. Vernon, 
where they had a very good school. My sister went 
to school there, and a cousin of mine. I went to 
school for five years, working my way sawing wood, 
painting or varnishing boxes, and doing odd jobs, and 
in the summer I worked for my uncle on the farm, 
picking up a little money in that way. In the fall or 
winter I went to school, until I was sixteen years 
of age, three years. Then I had forty dollars left 
me, and I went to my uncle and asked him if I could 
not have it to go to school, and I made the statement 
to him that if I could go to school one term more I 
could teach. He said there were too many school 
teachers already, and that I had better get a job and 
go to work on the road at eleven dollars a month if I 
could get it, and advised me to take it, or commanded 
me to. I obeyed him by starting off to school. The 
school was in charge of Dyer H. Sanborn, a man who 
taught grammar by a new method. That winter I got 
a school on Corser Hill, N. H. This was my first 
school. I had nearly seventy pupils, a large number 
older than myself. Six of them taught school the next 



APPENDIX. 119 

summer. One of my pupils set the copies for me. 
How I got through that school I don't know. I 
simply know that I lived through it. I did not 
know anything about teaching, and it was only by 
the love and sympathy of my pupils that I man- 
aged to teach out the winter. That summer I went 
to work again on the farm, and in the fall I 
wanted a school. I was told that there was a school 
over in Auburn at a place called " Over-the-Brook," 
and one afternoon I started and walked over there, 
nine and one-half miles, and found the school com- 
mittee husking corn. I sat down and husked with 
them, and as the result of our talk I was offered the 
school at $17 a month, and $18 if I did well, and 
board around. The winter before I had had $15 a 
month. This was a very hard school, and one old 
gentleman gravely informed me that I was too young, 
and had better go home. But I came down with my 
old trunk to the school house, and there I taught for 
thirteen weeks, and they gave me the $18 a month. 
In all my country school teaching, so far as I can see, I 
simply did what my teachers had done before me, noth- 
ing more, but I had a way of getting along with the 
pupils. I had spelling schools and evening schools, and 
declamations, and other things of that sort. One 
thing I neglected to say in regard to my early educa- 
tion, and that is, that I began to declaim before I was 
three years old, and I was considered quite a famous 
declaimer in all the country round. I learned to re- 
cite nearly all the pieces then in vogue. This part of 
my education I believe to have been very damaging 



120 APPENDIX. 

upon my success in after life. The declaiming culti- 
vated an extreme self-consciousness. 

I had a way of governing by getting the good will 
of my pupils. 6 I seldom punished. As I boarded 
around I got acquainted with all the people in the dis- 
trict, and better acquainted with the scholars, and I 
was quite successful in my management. 

I taught a select school in the vestry of the meet- 
ing house. I had about fifty pupils. Afterwards I 
taught in the village school. When I was twenty 
years old I was called to take a very hard school in 
the Village of Hinsdale, N. H. The boys had turned 
out the former master and pelted him with snow- 
balls, and they sent to Manchester where I lived, and 
I went over to take the school. A village schoolmas- 
ter who wanted the place had told the boys that. I 
would punish them unmercifully, and they had made 
up their minds that they would whip me and turn 
me out as they had my predecessor. As I sat in my 
chair the first morning I noticed that the boys had a 
very firm and determined look, in fact there Avas a 
tightness of the teeth and a glare in the eyes that told 
me there was trouble ahead, and it pleased me so 
much, the more I thought of it. that I burst out into a 
loud laugh, and then they all smiled, and that was the 
end of the trouble. I never punished anybody there. 

Then I was called back to my native village of Pis- 
catauquog to take charge of the Grammar School, 
which I taught a little over one year. 

In 1859 one of my classmates who had been a teach- 
er in Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois, was in- 



APPENDIX. 121 

structed to procure a Principal for the school of which 
he was First Assistant. He chose me, and I went 
West in 1859. Carrollton is about thirty miles north of 
Alton, and fifty miles from St. Louis. The people 
were mostly Southerners, Kentuckians and Virginians, 
intensely Southern in feeling. I had in the school, 
about one hundred and twenty-five, with one assistant. 
The pupils in my room were from twelve to twenty-five 
years of age. It was probably the roughest school I 
ever taught. I was then a thin, spare young man, 
with long hair, very pale and almost emaciated. I re- 
member very well when I sat down in the room for 
the first time surrounded by my pupils. The past rec- 
ord of the school had been exceedingly bad, one of my 
predecessors had been pelted with mud, the soft 
unctious mud of Southern Illinois. I remember the 
first speech I made to the pupils seated in a big chair. 
I told them that my idea of a good school was to have 
a first class time, and that in order to have a good 
time they must all take hold and work together, and 
then they would be sure of a good time. My first as- 
sistant, Miss Gilchrist, told me confidentially some 
time afterwards, that she knew when she heard me 
talking that way to the pupils that I would fail, and she 
felt sorry for me, and sorry that I had come out there 
so far from home. The schoolhouse was old, and the 
yard was not blessed with a single shade tree, the 
yard was full of gypsum weed, and was a rooting 
place for hogs; the fence around the yard was in a 
very bad condition. I got my pupils to pull up the 
weeds, and I sowed grass seed in their place. I used 



122 APPENDIX. 

to go out and play games with my pupils at recess 
time, and though I taught in the same old way, teach- 
ing the rules of Grammar and Spelling in a perfectly 
perfunctory manner, I gained the good will of my 
pupils in my two years there. My salary was $650 a 
year, paid in depreciated wild cat scrip of that time. 
While there Lincoln was elected President, and then 
came the rumors of war. Though I was a Republican 
at heart my Directors were all Southerners. I cast 
my first ballot for Lincoln, and when the question of 
war came to the front I did not keep still. I pro- 
nounced myself a Union man and ready to go to war. 
They got up a Cavalry Company in Carrollton, — I 
owned a pony at that time, and I rode him in with 
the recruits and said I would go with them. Then 
my Directors turned on me. They did not dare to 
turn me out, but proposed to cut down my salary 
because I took the stand I did. The Company could 
not get the saddles and equipments necessary to enter 
the service, and the school closed its term and I went 
East to my home in old Bedford, but the war spirit 
had not gone, though my sisters begged and pleaded 
with me not to go to war, saying that I was the only 
son, and the only hope of the house. My mother 
never said a word against it, and I judged rather from 
the way she acted than from what she said that she 
thought I had better go. However, my sisters' plead- 
ings led me to put off the day of my enlistment, and I 
received the offer of the High School. In the mean- 
time the Directors in Carrollton had cut down my sal- 
ary one hundred dollars in order to punish me. The 



APPENDIX. 123 

Directors of the High School in Alton hearing of it 
offered me by telegraph the position of Principal of 
the High School, and I accepted it. But just as I 
got ready to start I received a message from a Cap- 
tain of a Company saying that if I would come over 
and help him recruit his Company he would make me 
Lieutenant. I did not wish to be an officer at all, 
I did not know anything about war, but my sisters 
had said that if I could only be an officer of some sort 
they would give up their opposition to my going. 
So there was my chance, and I hurried over to 
the place. This was Company E, Fourth New 
Hampshire Volunteers, and the time was August, 
1 86 1. The Company was recruited and on the first 
of September we went to Washington and to Annapo- 
lis, where we prepared to go South to take Port Royal. 
In my Brigade there were several distinguished men; 
General Terry was the Lieutenant Colonel of the 
Seventh Connecticut, Gen. Joseph Hawley, now United 
States Senator, was Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixth 
Connecticut. We were in a great storm off Cape Hat- 
teras and came near being foundered on Frying Pan 
Shoal. The first battle I witnessed was a naval battle, 
the taking of Fort Walker at Port Royal. My Captain 
afterward went home and I was promoted to take his 
place. We spent the winter of 1862 at Port Royal. 
We went down in the expedition to Florida in 1862, tak- 
ing Augustine and Jacksonville. In 1863 we were in 
the siege of Charleston and at the battle of Pocotilligo, 
and in 1864 we were under General Butler in the great 
Virginia campaign. Had a thousand men in the 



124 APPENDIX. 

spring when we recruited, and in September my regi- 
ment could muster only forty men. We were in the 
battles of Drury's Bluff, Coal Harbor, the attack on 
Petersburg and the siege of Petersburg, and the bat- 
tle of the Mine, where I took command of the men 
and commanded until the 16th of August, where I 
was in the midst of a fight under General Hancock. 
General Grant was present. At Deep Run I was 
called to take charge of the Brigade, as the Captain 
and two Brigade commanders had been shot before 
me, and in repelling the charge of the enemy I was 
shot in the neck, and ordered taken to the hospital at 
Hampton Roads. I came home and was detailed as 
Adjutant General of the rendezvous at New Haven, 
Connecticut, and took an active part in the second 
Lincoln campaign. I stopped in New Hampshire for 
three or four weeks, and was married to Phenie 
E. Hall of Bennington, N. H., went back to 
New Haven, was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, 
and by request went back to my regiment at Port 
Royal. They had been in two battles under General 
Butler and one under General Terry, and had done 
noble service. My old flag was against the Rebel 
flag on the redoubt for twenty minutes during the 
thickest of the fight at ... I took command and 
marched across the country under General Schofield. 
Then we marched to Goldsboro, N. C, where we met 
General Sherman. Then my regiment was sent back 
to take charge of a strip of railroad nine miles long, 
between . . . and ... to send supplies to 
General Sherman. Then the regiment was afterward 



APPENDIX. 125 

stationed higher up, and in making a detour my Adju- 
tant and myself were away from the railroad and were 
captured by a squad of Wilber's Cavalry and taken 
across the country to General Johnson's army, with 
whom I marched through to Raleigh, N. C, bare- 
footed, for one of the Rebels had taken away my 
boots. We brought up at Greensboro, N. C., where I 
was paroled, but could not leave for eight days. I 
was in my Colonel's uniform and was the only Yankee 
there and they plied me with questions. They had re- 
ceived the information that Lee had surrendered. 
Three weeks later I was back in Raleigh in charge of 
a Brigade and continued in command until we were 
ordered home. After I got home, by the way, I 
preached reconstruction and reconciliation as well as I 
knew. I said the war is over, the Southern people 
have done the best they can, now let us shake hands 
and make up. I was looked upon by my friends as a 
young man who had succeeded very well, and I had 
a commission in the regular army offered me, and a 
clerkship at Washington; in fact nothing was too 
good for me. When I said that I was going to be a 
school teacher my friends were very much disgusted 
with me. One of my friends, a man who had taught 

school and was a teacher, said I was a fool for 

doing any such a thing. I told him all I wanted was 
a chance to teach the school at Manchester at $1,100 a 
year. In fact, all through the army I thought a great 
deal of what I would do in school, and planned how I 
would change things. It seemed to be the only thing 
that held me as a dream, and I thought if I ever did 



126 APPENDIX. 

get back, and I never expected to, that I would teach 
school. So in 1865 I was in the North Grammar 
School as Principal, and there was where I began my 
discipline. I had everything in good shape, I had bat- 
talion drill and marching, and everything went like 
clock work. I also believed in ranking, and I had the 
idea of emulation as an incentive for school work. I 
ranked my scholars, changing their places from week 
to week, and had everything to my mind. This was 
the first time in my life that I had departed from the 
regular routine of school teaching. Up to this time I 
kept the law and the gospel of the old fashioned teach- 
ing with a great deal of strictness. I taught school 
here for three years in the North Grammar School 
in Manchester, having considerable success as a 
teacher, and studying hard for my profession. I 
did not wish to go into politics, and I tried to 
keep out of it, but some way or other I was drawn 
into it at this time, and I asked a friend of mine if 
he knew of a place out West for me. They were 
then founding the Soldiers' Home in Dayton, Ohio, 
and I was called to take charge of the first district 
school there, at a salary of $1,600 a year. This 
was the first time I had ever had charge of little 
children since I taught a country school. And I had 
long wished it. I had been down in the school at 
Manchester and had seen the little children studying 
their A B C's, and doing their work, and they did 
not seem happy in it as I thought children should, and 
my question was, Did God intend that this mournful 
process, that this mournful plan, should be the way of 



APPENDIX. I27 

developing the embryotic man? It seemed to me 
wrong. I could not be reconciled to the fact that 
these little children were in such, to me, deplorable 
state. So when I went to Dayton I made up my mind 
that I would study the question of the treatment of 
little children. I got hold of some work or other that 
gave me a list of juvenile books that were published, 
but I could find none of them in this country except 
" Sheldon's Object Lessons." That was in 1868 when 
I went to Dayton, Ohio. I immediately went to work 
and studied the Primary School question. I had a 
class of eight preparing for the High School, and I 
prepared them for the High School, but spent all the 
time I could in the Primary Departments where the 
teachers wanted me to help them. I told the Primary 
teacher I did not know anything about Primary teach- 
ing, but thought it could be better, and she said, 
"Come and help me." In 1868 in Ohio everything 
was run upon the examination plan and a percentage 
in marking, and Cleveland, Toledo and Cincinnati 
went wild over it. They actually telegraphed from 
one city to another the percentage in examinations, 
— "What per cent, did you get?" "We got 75." 
" Well, we got 90 in our place," and so on. The 
whole plan of the schools was to learn words and re- 
cite them, and then write them down in the examina- 
tion stiff and strong. Now, I had very little idea, and 
was perfectly innocent, of how other teachers did their 
work. My whole idea was to learn how to teach 
school. I thought it was a great profession and that 
I ought to know my work, and when I waked up to 



I2 8 APPENDIX. 

the fact that other teachers did not study their pro- 
fession I was very much surprised. I was aston- 
ished. I went into this school to learn how to teach. 
My first efforts were very crude. The papers poured 
out the vials of their wrath against me, and a great 
book house by its agents 'did its best to kill me. But 
at the end of the year they said I had a very good 
school. The next year they put up a building and 
proposed to have a Normal School in the City of Day- 
ton, and I was elected as Principal, and chose my own 
teachers, and in 1869 I began the Normal school 
and the plan of training teachers by practice work. 
I had one teacher in each room, and then took 
the pupils from the High School and trained them 
to teach. I went on in my work under a great load 
of opposition from the teachers in all the country 
round. I tried to teach reading on something like 
the phonetic plan, and then I introduced the Word 
Method. I changed a little in Arithmetic and Ge- 
ography and dropped Technical Grammar. I kept up 
the idea of ranking and emulation right through. I 
stayed two years as Principal of the Normal School, 
having under my charge about seven hundred. The 
fourth year they called a Superintendent to the school 
and I was appointed Assistant Superintendent, at a 
salary of $2,000 a year, with general charge of the 
Primary work and of the Normal School. It was 
here that my wife died and left me with a little girl. 

I had a great fear that I might be wrong in my 
teaching. In fact almost everybody, all the teachers 
at least, said I was wrong, and the criticism was very 



APPENDIX. 



129 



strong. They also said that I had not a good educa- 
tion, that I had not been to college. I was fitted to 
enter college, and proposed to go after I returned from 
the West, but the war broke out and that prevented my 
entering college, and when I came back I was married 
and of course could not well go. They accused me of 
being an illiterate man, and all that. In fact, there 
was very little they did not accuse me of, and I waked 
up to the fact slowly that other teachers did not study 
and plan for their work as I was doing, so I resigned 
my position in 1872. I had a little money at this time, 
coming from an aunt who left me $5,000, and I took 
this and went to Germany, to Berlin, and studied in 
the University of King William in Berlin. I visited 
schools in Berlin, and all over the country. During 
vacations I traveled in Holland, Switzerland, Italy 
and France. I studied in Germany for about two and 
one-half years. I also took private coaching in certain 
branches. I went into the Kindergarten Schools, and 
became acquainted with the Kindergarten work in 
Berlin. In 1874, or early in 1875, I returned to my 
home. I wanted to stay in New England and teach 
school, because I thought the influence would be bet- 
ter than if I went West. I wanted to teach in Bos- 
ton, because there I thought I would have the best ad- 
vantages for study, having access to the libraries, etc. 
There were several failures in my family about this 
time, and I offered to teach in my native school where 
I had taught before, — but they did not want me. I t 
became greatly despondent and discouraged, and in 
Boston I offered myself for a sub-master, and though' 



^o APPENDIX. 

I had the highest recommendations and credentials, 
the highest a man could probably have, they did not 
care to engage me. A little later I accidentally made 
the acquaintance of a gentleman by the name of 
Adams, a relative of John Quincy Adams and of 
Charles Francis Adams, and through his influence I 
was appointed Superintendent of the school in Quincy, 
the first Superintendent they had had. I went there 
in 1875. Quincy never had had a Superintendent be- 
fore, as I said, it was an old fashioned town, but the 
schools were fully as good as the average in the State 
of Massachusetts, perhaps a little better. 

I never had any idea of any particular fame that 
would come from that work, that was entirely foreign 
to my feeling. I never thought for an instant that I 
was going to do anything superior to anything else 
that had been done in the schools ; I simply wanted to 
carry out my plans. My observations, and what I 
had learned in Europe, had convinced me that the 
philosophers and thinkers of the ages were right ; that 
there was something a great deal better for mankind 
than what I had been doing, at least, in school; that 
there was a means of arousing the mental and moral 
power that I never had tried, at least, and I was seek- 
ing to try to present the conditions for higher growth. 
I knew from what I had read and from what I had 
seen that reading and writing and numbers could be 
taught in a better way than the old fashioned way. 
And from all the works that I could get on the sub- 
ject, both in English and German, T found that there 
was a great deal better way of doing it than anything 



APPENDIX. 131 

I had done, and of course I had a great deal of en- 
thusiasm and a great desire to work out the plan and 
see what I could do. I did not have the faintest sus- 
picion that I was going to do anything better than 
had been done, that was entirely foreign to my mind, 
and when our schools in Ouincy became famous and 
thousands of visitors poured in. and it was written up 
in all the papers and discussed, I was probably the 
most astonished man in the whole community. I 
thought from my point of reasoning that the work I 
was doing was a grand work and the right work and 
what most teachers would do. I must say I felt very 
sorrowful and sad over what I found as to the schools 
in Boston and Massachusetts, in Boston in particular. 
I thought every teacher with such a profession, and 
such a glorious opportunity for good work would do all 
these things that I was trying to do. When I went into 
Boston and could not find a single work on pedagogics 
I was surprised, and when I met the teachers in Nor- 
folk and talked with them on the Phonetic Method, 
when I found that they did not know what I was talk- 
ing about I was astonished, and my feeling was simply 
a strong feeling of sadness and of sorrow over the fact 
that they were not doing the work that I supposed 
they were doing, — that they should do, and that the 
opportunity presented for them to do. 

About 1876 there had been a change in the govern- 
ment of the Boston schools. Dr. Samuel Eliot was 
chosen Superintendent, and a Board of Six Supervis- 
ors was established to supervise the schools, and in 
1880 I was called to become one of the Supervisors. I 



!^ 2 APPENDIX. 

was placed in charge of the primary schools of the 
North End of South Boston. My work here met with 
fierce and prolonged opposition of the teachers, espe- 
cially of the principals of the schools; but notwith- 
standing this opposition I was re-elected for a second 
term. The position was not, to say the least, what I 
wanted. I wanted to come in closer contact with the 
schools, that I might verify the suspicion of better 
things which I thought were in store for the children. 

I was offered the position of principal of the Cook 
County Normal School at a salary of five thousand 
dollars a year. The school had had a struggling ex- 
istence for fifteen years ; it was born in the travail of 
a bitter fight, and had lived only by the persistent en- 
ergy and indomitable love of its principal. Dr. D. S. 
Wentworth. Professor Wentworth had founded the 
school in 1868, and under great opposition had held 
it until he was taken sick. When I came here in 
1883 Professor Wentworth, who had been sick two 
years, died the September previous to my coming. 
The school therefore not having a head and always 
having had a bitter fight, was in a sad condition. 

I don't know why I took the school, I had no par- 
ticular reasons for taking it. I had a good place and 
everything was going well. But it came to me, I do 
not know how, or why, that that was the place for me 
to work. I suppose some people would call it Divine 
Providence, I don't know. It came to me that that 
was the place for me to work, that I could work out 
right face to face with little children the plan I had in 
my mind, and so I resigned my position in Boston, 



APPENDIX. 133 

was married again, and came to Cook County in 
1883.* I was given the full charge of the school for 
three years, to make my own course, and to appoint 
my own teachers, within certain limitations of salary. 

I can say that all my life I have had a perfect pas- 
sion for teaching school, and I never wavered in it iii 
my life, and never desired to change. I never had 
anything outside offered me that had any attractions 
for me, and never desired to go outside of the work, 
and it was sort of a wonder to me that I did have such" 
a love for it. I remember when I was teaching in the 
Grammar School in Piscatauquog I had a little gar- 
den. Then we lived near the old home where I was 
born, and I had a little rocky, gravelly garden, that 
I used to tend and hoe at morning and night, beans 
and corn, and so on. Of course when I was hoeing I 
was dreaming and thinking of school. I remember 
one day I was hoeing beans, and, by the way, I always 
liked to hoe beans the best, and I remember just where 
I stood, and I said to myself, " Why do I love to teach 
school? " and then I looked around on the little grow- 
ing plants, and I said, " It is because I love to see 
things grow," and if I should tell any secret of my 
life, it is the intense desire I have to see growth and 
improvement in human beings. I think that is the 
whole secret of my enthusiasm and study, if there be 
any secret to it, — my intense desire to see the mind 
and soul grow. 

* His second wife was Mrs. M. Frank Stuart, who at that time 
was first assistant in the Boston School of Oratory. 



34 APPENDIX. 



The change from the strict discipline to the democratic 
form of government. 

I am by nature a Martinet. I was in the army 
noted for my discipline, and in my school in Manches- 
ter, and very much so in Dayton, and to some extent 
in Ouincy, though I had not direct charge of the 
schools. I was noted for my discipline, but I want 
to show why I changed my form of government. I 
made up my mind, slowly, that if the human being is 
to attain freedom, if its soul is to grow, he must choose 
for himself, and must see the right and choose it and 
act under it. And when I took the Normal School here 
I purposed to carry out the plan that the great secret 
of human growth was to arouse the spiritual and 
higher in the human being, to drop all external incen- 
tives to selfishness, leave out ambition and emulation* 
and all unnatural competition, and feed the child with 
mental and moral nourishment. Make it love the 
work and love to help others for the sake of the work. 
That was the great change I made, and slowly of 
course, I was going from the Quincy work to the 
Cook County Normal School plan of teaching. Then 
in the Normal work I took up the mental training for 
the first time to any extent. I took up the Science 
work, and the correlation of all the studies as one 
whole and the concentration of all. I saw for the 
first time fully that reading, for instance, should be a 
means of growth, and that- there was no need in the 
study of reading to have any reading outside of that 



APPENDIX. 135 

which bears directly upon the study taught. It seemed 
to me one of the most satsifactory discoveries to my- 
self in my life when I felt that there was only one 
study in the world, and that is the study of life, and 
all studies center in that, — the study of the laws of 
life. There is a perfect correlation and a perfect unity, 
and this all lies, it all centers, in God. The great en- 
ergy should center in the human being as a focus, just 
what the human being can take into his soul of this 
All Life, and give it back again, is the function of 
the human being ; to take the truth that comes in from 
all the universe and give it back being created and 
ever creative. The child rules with God so far as this 
All Life, the lines of life come in, — he conforms to 
that life and the functions of his own life in giving it 
out to others, and just so far he rules with God, — and 
the supreme joy of being is to take in this life and give 
it out to others. The steps of progress that I can see 
are the concentration of it in an ideal school, in an 
ideal education, — and mankind is lost upon any- 
thing else, because all forms of expression and all 
the so-called branches when seen under the light of 
the one central thought of unity are all one, and one 
cannot be known alone, and if all is known each study 
is only known as it is known in its relation to the great 
center, to the unit. 

An Instance in My School Life 

This was an instance in my school life in Pisca- 
tauquog. One of the customs of the school there was 



136 APPENDIX. 

the habit of going and telling the teacher if any one 
teased another, or hurt another, and out at recess one 
day somebody abused me and I trotted up to the school 
room door, and opened it, and said, " Teacher, John- 
nie has been pounding me," and the teacher, a very 
nice lady, Miss Sarah Walker, said, " Come right 
in, and bring the little boy with you." And then I 
immediately began to be very much ashamed to think 
what a mean thing I had done to go and tattle. So 
I did not return to the school house, but started off in 
another direction, and the teacher thought it was her 
duty to catch me, and she started after me. Up right 
opposite to my house was a steep declivity which led 
right down into a swamp. The teacher was still fol- 
lowing after me, and down I went into the swamp and 
paddled my way through the mud, and lost one of my 
shoes. At last she gained on me and I laid down in 
the mud, and as she was not strong enough to take 
me up in her arms and carry me she called to a man 
who was working in a field near by to come and help, 
and I was taken up kicking and struggling and taken 
back in all ceremony into the school house and laid out 
on a long seat, where I was straightened out and left 
to dry. And then as I began to dry I began to re- 
flect how foolish I had been, and that the teacher had 
done nothing to me, and then I began to melt and I 
lifted up my voice and wept loud and long. And be- 
fore the close of the school when the teacher called 
me up to the desk and took out the ferrule and told 
me to hold out my hand, I felt it was only a just and 



APPENDIX. 137 

righteous punishment, and every whack she gave me 
on my hand I felt was an expiation for a sin. 



The author one day said to Col. Parker, Colonel, I 
have heard that when you went to Germany and se- 
lected the line of work that you desired to take the 
President of the University said, " But that does not 
lead to any degree." And that your answer was, 
" No, but it leads to the children of America." Is it 
true? He did not deny it. 



Helps in Geography 

Chalk Illustrations 

By Eliza H. Morton. A book of nearly 200 simple, freehand 
sketches of many scenes and object of interest to classes in 
geography, and a large amount of valuable information in connection 
with each sketch. Many suggestions and full directions for the 
drawings are also given. Each continent is taken up separately. 
200 pages. Cloth. Price, 60 cents. 

Geographical Spice 

By Eliza H. Morton. A compilation of brief descriptions, of 
natural curiosities, interesting notes of art and illustrative items not 
found in the regular texts, but of much value in creating fresh interest 
and teaching the wonders of geography. Gathered from all portions 
of the globe and arranged by continents, with a copious and conven- 
ient index. 210 pages. Paper, 25 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. 

Industrial and Commercial Geography 

By J. U. Barnard, Kansas City, Mo. A series of working out- 
lines, with suggestions to teachers. Facts are given, references are 
mentioned and a comprehensive outline is furnished by grades, from 
the third to the sixth. It teaches the true value of geographical con- 
ditions as factors in the development of man, introducing the child 
into the real activities of the business world. First it takes up the 
different industries, one by one; then the different sections, showing 
the products of each state, their industries, means of transportation, 
etc. Invaluable to every teacher of geography. 164 pages. 
Price, 30 cents. 

Outlines of Geography 

By J. M. Callahan. The best and most complete outlines of 
geography published. Besides the topical outlines, the most impor- 
tant facts are given, supplementary notes are added and general 
questions are inserted for reviews. 51 pages. Price, 15 cents. 

A. FLANAGAN COMPANY, :: CHICAGO 



Boo ks on Bus y Work 

GAMES, SEAT WORK AND SENSE TRAINING EXERCISES 

By M. Adelaide Holton, Supervisor of Primary Schools and Eugene 
Kimball of the Minneapolis School, Minneapolis Minn. The games, 
seat work and sense training exercises contained in this little book are 
the result of years of experience with thousands of children and hundreds 
of teachers. Great care has been taken to give a variety of educative 
exercises that cultivate attention, concentration, interest, judgment and 
reasoning, and that train along the lines of regular school work. 124 
pages. Cloth. Price 40 cents. 

DEVICES FOR BUSY WORK 

By Abbie G. Hall. One hundred of them. This book contains a 
choice selection of plain, sensible, easily followed devices, to keep the 
little ones busy. Enough for a whole year. Invaluable to all primary 
teachers. Price, 10 cents 

HOW TO MANAGE BUSY WORK 

By Amos M: Kellogg. Being suggestions for desk-work in language, 
number, earth, people, things, morals, writing, drawing, etc. All primary 
and intermediate teachers need its help. It is a book not only of 
devices but of methods. It describes in full the apparatus needed and 
tells how to use it, Profusely illustrated. Price, 25 cents. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR SEAT WORK 

By Minnie M. George, author of the Plan Books — the most helpful 
book for teachers ever published. This little book is worth its weight 
in gold. Here are 62 pages of busy work devices that will supply 
pupils with employment that will occupy head and hands; that will lead 
pupils to observe closely; lead pupils to be inventive; and, best of all, 
to relieve you of much care by furnishing your pupils something profita- 
ble to do. There are suggestions and devices enough to last from 
September to June, inclusive. This pamphlet will give you more help 
in your work than the average dollar book. If not, return it and receive 
your money back. Price, 15 cents. 

A. FLANAGAN CO. .'. CHICAGO 



! 1906 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESSi 

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